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THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 


The  Call  of  the  South 


A  PRESENTATION  OF  THE  HOME 
PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS.  ESPECIALLY 
AS  IT  APPLIES  TO  THE  SOUTH 


ARRANGED  TO  MEET  THE  NEEDS 
OF  MISSION  STUDY  CLASSES  AND 
ALSO   OF  THE  GENERAL   READER 


BY 

VICTOR  IRVINE  MASTERS.  D.D. 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLICITY  OF  THE  HOME 
MISSION  BOARD  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CON- 
VENTION ;  AUTHOR  OF  "BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN 
THE  SOUTH."  "COUNTRY  CHURCH  IN  THE 
SOUTH."  "BAPTIST  HOME  MISSIONS,"  ETC. 


The  entire  Christianizntion  of  North  America  is  the  greatest  single 
enterprise  confronting  the  churches  of  the  njuhole  ivorld. — William  T. 
Ellis,  after  a  luorld-tour  to  study  missions. 

Nonv  the  Spirit  speaketh  expressly  that  in  the  latter  times  some 
shall  depart  from  the  faith,  ginjing  heed  to  seducing  spirits,  and 
doctrines  of  de'uils. — 2  Tim.  3:1. 

Stri'Tjing  together  for  the  faith  of  the  gospel ;  and  in  nothing  terri- 
fied by  your  ad'versaries. — Phil.  1:27,  28. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

PUBLICITY  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE 
HOME  MISSION  BOARD  OF  THE 
SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION 
ATLANTA,    --------  GEORGIA 


Copyright,  1918.  by 
THE  HOME  MISSION  BOARD  OF  THE 
SOUTHERN    BAPTIST    CONVENTION 


Toivnley  &  Kysor 
Printen  and  Binders 
Atlanta,  Georgia 


'3f  : 


CO 

>- 


PREFACE. 

The  manifest  purpose  of  the  author  of  "The  Call  of  the 
South"  is  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  better  understand- 
ing of  the  social  and  religious  conditions  of  the  South,  and 
to  point  the  way  to  a  more  intelligent  dealing  with  the 
same.      Dr.   Masters  is   well   qualified  to   speak  on   these 
S|    matters.    He  has  been  a  diligent  student  of  Southern  con- 
^    ditions.     His  love  for  the  South  and  loyalty  to  her  highest 
ideals  are  his  both  by  right  of  inheritance  and  of  devoted 
5r    service.     Through  the  columns  of  the  religious  press,  for 
(3    several   years   past,   and   in   some   well-written   books,   he 
o    has  revealed  a  comprehensive  grasp  of  Southern  problems, 
a  keen  insight  as  to  the  trend  of  things,  and  a  constructive 
purpose  in  treating  complex  issues. 
^        The  present  volume  confirms  the  impressions  made  by 
iC     his  previous  efforts.     A  discriminating  survey  is  made  of 
O     the   principal   characteristics   of   Southern   life.      There   is 
m     no  attempt  to  treat  these  various  phases  exhaustively,  for 
5     each  one  would  itself  require  a  volume.     They  are  sug- 
3     gestively  sketched,  and  so  co-ordinated  as  to  set  out  the 
real  problem  of  which  they  are  factors.     A  distinction  is 
properly  made  between  those  factors  that  are  peculiar  to 
the  South,  e.  g.,  the  Highlander,  the  Negro,  etc.,  and  those 
that  are  common  to  the  nation,  such  as  false  faiths,  the 
country  church,  immigration,  etc. 

There  are  in  some  of  these  common  problems,  however, 
aspects  that  are  entirely  Southern.  This  is  true  of  the 
country  church.     The  same  thing  is  true  in  the  considera- 


443330 


6  PREFACE 

don  of  the  material  prosperity  of  the  South.  This  section 
has  shared  in  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country,  but, 
unlike  the  rest  of  the  country,  this  is  a  comparatively  new 
experience  for  it.  The  past  generation  in  the  South  was 
brought  up  largely  upon  the  discipline  of  adversity.  By 
the  very  necessities  of  the  case,  the  emphasis  given  to 
gospel  preaching  in  that  era  was  upon  the  comfort  and 
hope  it  had  to  ofier.  New  conditions  make  imperative  a 
difFerent  accent  in  gospel  preaching.  It  will  not  do  merely 
to  proclaim  to  an  age  of  prosperity  the  comforts  that  were 
sorely  needed  in  a  period  of  depression  and  adversity. 
The  South  does  not  need  and  has  Uttle  hospitality  for  a 
new  gospel.  The  demand  is  insistent,  though,  that  the  man 
of  to-day  shall  know  the  gospel  better,  and  learn  more  of 
the  meaning  of  social  justice,  self-control,  stewardship,  and 
Kingdom  claims  generally. 

The  method  of  approach  in  dealing  with  our  home  con- 
ditions is  well  stated  in  the  chapter  on  "The  Home  Principle 
in  Missions."  If  we  cannot  bring  to  our  service  in  behalf 
of  the  South,  the  same  worthy  motives  and  unselfish  pur- 
poses that  may  be  found  in  other  spheres  of  activity,  we 
shall  be  of  little  help  to  our  own  land,  and  shall  lessen 
the  value  of  the  South  to  the  nation  and  to  the  world. 

"The  Call  of  the  South"  is  admirably  suited  for  Mis- 
sion Study  Classes,  as  well  as  for  the  general  reader.  It 
is  gready  to  be  desired  that  it  shall  have  an  extensive 
circulation,  and  that  the  churches  and  the  homes  of  the 
South  may  be  instructed  and  inspired  by  its  virile  message. 

CHAS.  W.  DANIEL, 
Pastor  First  Baptist  Church. 

Atlanta,  Georgia. 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD. 

This  is  an  effort  to  present  the  appeal  of  homeland  mis- 
sions from  the  angle  of  underlying  principles  and  motives. 
Only  those  specific  fields  of  endeavor  are  considered  that 
seem  best  to  show  the  magnitude  of  the  home  principle 
in  missions.  The  undertaking  is  to  interpret  the  missionary 
needs  of  the  South  to  itself,  rather  than  to  others.  Per- 
haps the  story  will  not  therefore  be  less  informing  to 
others. 

The  book  is  intended  for  Mission  Study  Classes  and 
the  general  reader.  It  is  also  earnestly  hoped  that  busy 
pastors  will  find  in  it  that  which  shall  stimulate  their  minds 
afresh,  as  they  seek  to  arouse  their  churches  to  a  sense 
of  the  moral  grandeur  and  strategic  significance  of  the 
work  of  bringing  the  people  of  the  South  both  to  know 
and  to  serve  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Sometimes  as  a  minor  note,  sometimes  as  a  major,  two 
thoughts  recur  frequently  throughout  these  pages:  (1) 
As  never  before,  American  Christianity  is  to-day  beset  by 
Antichrist  and  other  false  teachings.  (2)  We  positively 
must  bring  the  lives,  as  well  as  the  souls,  of  our  people 
under  subjection  to  Christ,  if  we  are  to  win  and  hold  this 
country  for  him.  The  weird  note  of  the  most  awful  war 
in  the  world's  history  has  also  pushed  itself  into  the  medley, 
for  the  war  in  Europe  has  a  meaning  which  now  chal- 
lenges and  conditions  everything  else  in  the  world. 

In  Chapters  I  and  II  it  is  sought  to  demonstrate  that 
building  up  the  Christian  life  through  adequate  teaching 


8  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

and  exercise  is  as  truly  a  part  of  the  mission  program  of 
Christ  as  is  pioneering  for  souls  among  the  multitudes  who 
have  not  heard.  The  future  influence  and  usefulness  of 
Christianity  in  this  country  will  depend  largely  upon 
whether  the  nurturing  principle  shall  be  magnified  in  our 
belief  and  practice  as  it  is  in  the  New  Testament  teaching. 
Some  teachers  and  preachers,  and  a  very  large  number  of 
church  members,  have  not  accepted  this  as  a  requirement 
of  our  Lord.  The  rank  we  shall  accord  homeland  missions 
in  our  Kingdom  plans  will  depend  upon  our  acceptance 
or  non-acceptance  of  this  principle.  If  our  responsibility 
is  only  to  witness  before  the  world  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
there  remains  comparatively  little  mission  work  to  do  in 
America;  most  of  the  people  here  have  in  some  fashion 
heard  about  Jesus.  But  if  we  are  responsible  for  bringing 
men  to  know  Jesus  and  for  building  them  up  in  Jesus, 
homeland  missions  immediately  takes  rank  alongside  of 
work  in  lands  where  Christianity  is  yet  in  the  pioneering 
stage. 

Some  may  consider  too  strong  certain  utterances  herein 
about  religious  liberalism  and  false  faiths.  The  prospect 
of  causing  pain  is  distinctly  disagreeable  to  me.  But  the 
two  chapters  on  false  faiths  and  liberalism  contain  my 
deepest  convictions  on  the  subjects  treated.  They  have 
been  written  only  after  years  of  better  opportunity  than 
most  persons  enjoy  to  study  present  religious  tendencies. 
Some  of  the  best  posted  and  most  devout  students  of 
religious  life  in  the  South  have  done  me  the  kindness  to 
read  and  criticise  the  manuscript  of  the  book,  including 
the  chapters  on  latitudinarianism  in  doctrine.  Not  one  of 
these  gentlemen  has  intimated  that  the  treatment  should 
be   softened,   while   some   singled   out   these   chapters   for 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD  9 

special  commendation,  and  urged  that,  in  addition  to  their 
use  in  this  volume,  they  should  in  some  other  form  be 
scattered  broadcast  among  the  rank  and  file  of  our  people. 

Some  years  ago,  I  attained  an  unexpected  personal  pub- 
licity in  connection  with  a  banner,  inscribed  with  the 
words:  "Fraternal  sentiment  is  good,  but  loyalty  to  Christ 
is  better."  In  the  service  of  the  Home  Mission  Board,  I 
had  placed  these  words  on  a  banner  which  was  hung  on 
the  walls  at  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  in  the  belief 
that  they  set  forth  an  important  and  timely  truth.  It  de- 
veloped that  some  of  our  leaders,  at  that  time,  sincerely 
feared  that  the  emblazoned  sentiment  was  an  offence 
against  Christian  unity.  Since  then,  the  rapidly  increasing 
aggressions  of  religious  liberalism  have  changed  all  that. 
Those  who  deprecated  the  sentiment  of  the  quoted  motto 
have  become  among  the  ablest  setters-forth  of  the  dangers 
of  stressing  fraternity  at  the  expense  of  obedience  to 
Christ.  The  incident  is  here  recalled  to  show  how  rapidly 
religious  liberalism  has  increased  in  boldness  and  out- 
spokenness, and  how  almost  universal  among  responsible 
leaders  of  God's  people  is  the  conviction  that  here  lurks 
a  danger  to  true  religion  which  is  as  great  as  it  is  astute 
and  determined.  I  am  so  confident  that  a  supreme  danger 
to  true  religion  lurks  in  those  faiths  which  minimize  sin 
and  the  Saviourhood  of  Christ,  while  they  magnify  en- 
vironmental salvation  and  an  external  exhibition  of  human 
fraternity,  that  I  would  have  used  more  vigorous  terms  to 
set  forth  the  danger  if  I  could  have  found  them. 

If  these  chapters  shall  aid  the  reader  to  get  a  better 
grip  on  the  home  principle  in  missions,  if  they  shall 
strengthen  his  grasp  on  the  dynamic  forces  and  the  tasks 
enthrone  the  Christ  among  men,  the  utmost  hope  of  the 


10  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

author  shall  be  accomplished.  In  that  hope  I  offer  them 
to  faithful  men  and  women,  who  desire  above  all  things 
to  see  Jesus  enthroned  as  Christ  and  Lord  in  every  heart 
and  life. 

VICTOR  I.  MASTERS. 

Atlanta,  Georgia,  February  I,  1917. 


CONTENTS 

Preface 5 

Author's  Foreword  7 

I.     The  Call  of  the  South 13 

II.     The  Home  Principle  in  Missions  35 

III.  Aiding  the  Southern  Negro  52 

IV.  Some  Neglected  Americans  78 

V.     A  Gospel  for  a  Prosperous  Age 105 

VI.     The  Immigrant 123 

VII.     The  Revolt  Against  Doctrine  139 

VIII.     False  Faiths  and  Other  Foes  165 

IX.     Saving  What  We  Have 183 

X.     Cruciality  of  a  Saved  South 204 

Bibliography 221 


It  will  be  vain  to  send  our  little  bands  over  the  world  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  purity  and  peace,  love  and  power,  if  in 
our  social,  industrial  and  racial  conditions  in  America  we  are 
preaching  uncleanness,  strife,  enmity  and  failure. — Robert  E. 
Speer. 

Only  a  Christianity  powerful  enough  to  dominate  over  our 
social,  national  and  international  life  and  relationships  will 
finally  commend  itself  to  the  peoples  to  whom  we  go. — John  R. 
Mott. 

Here  in  the  South,  where  we  find  the  purest  standards  of 
political  democracy,  and  the  most  chivalrous  types  of  homes, 
are  the  greatest  opportunities  for  manufacturing  a  race  of 
great-souled  men  to  govern  a  greater  America  of  tomorrow. 
— Newell  Dwight  Hillis. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH. 

Not  the  caU  of  largest  territory  and  niiiiib««.  There  is 
an  appeal  in  numbers  and  extent  of  territory.  Our  Lord, 
though  he  purposed  that  the  gospel  should  be  carried  to 
the  whole  world,  did  not  use  arithmetic  to  set  forth  the 
needs  of  men.  We  often  do.  But  the  call  of  the  South  is 
not  first  the  call  of  numbers  or  needy  square  miles.  True, 
there  are  in  America,  with  100,000,000  population,  only 
about  25,000,000  members  of  evangelical  bodies,  leaving 
a  vast  mass  to  be  won  to  Christ.  Also  it  is  a  country  of 
about  3,000,000  square  miles,  located  in  the  north  tem- 
perate zone,  in  which  the  main  development  of  man- 
kind has  taken  place  and  is  still  taking  place.  But 
America's  unsaved  millions  are  inconsiderable  as  compared 
with  the  masses  of  China  and  Africa  and  Japan  and  other 
pagan  countries.  Impressive  as  is  its  size,  that  also  is  no 
great  thing  when  matched  with  the  vast  land  expanses  of 
the  world.  Still  less  does  the  South  impress  one,  if  his 
approach  to  the  subject  is  measured  only  by  areas  and 
numbers.  True,  the  South  has  one-third  the  size  and  one- 
third  the  population  of  the  nation.  Better  evangelized  than 
any  equal  population  anywhere,  there  is  little  in  the  figures 
to  impress  one  whose  zeal  is  elicited  by  numbers  only. 
With  12,000.000  evangelical  church  members  and  2,000,- 
000  Romanist  population,  among  our  population  of  36,- 
000,000,  we  have  in  the  South  only  22,000,000  without 
formal  religious  alignment,  or  a  probable    18,000,000  of 


14  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

responsible  age  and  condition,  who  have  not  made  any 
profession  of  religion.  If  we  must  have  the  sauce  of  stu- 
pendous and  untouched  numbers  to  make  palatable  the 
dish  of  our  missionary  concern,  we  may  well  pass  by  these 
18,000,000.  True,  Christ  died  to  save  sinners,  and  these 
are  at  our  doors  and  of  our  own  kindred,  easier  for  us 
to  reach  than  any  other  people  on  earth.  Also,  these  18,- 
000,000,  if  saved,  would  be  in  better  position  to  project 
their  faith  than  any  other  equal  group  in  the  world. 
But  from  the  standpoint  of  numbers  alone,  18,000,000 
are  too  inconsiderable  to  engage  the  attention  of  persons 
who  are  burdened  only  by  vast  masses  of  unsaved. 

Not  the  call  of  pioneer  opportmuty.  It  is  said  of  Daniel 
Boone  that  when  another  settler  hewed  out  a  home  in  the 
Appalachian  forests  nearer  than  five  or  six  miles  to  the 
Boone  cabin,  the  pioneer  moved  on  to  where  he  would 
have  elbow  room  and  virgin  soil.  The  American  is  a 
pioneersman  by  tradition  and  temperament.  But  the  virgin 
lands  are  disappearing  and  he  is  having  to  adjust  himself 
to  a  life  which  intensifies  and  builds  up,  and  does  not  for- 
ever run  to  some  new  place  whose  resources  no  man  has 
touched.  In  religion  also  America  has  been  of  the  pioneer 
habit, — none  more  so  than  Southern  Baptists.  The  wil- 
derness path  invited  our  fathers.  Their  sons  became  great 
evangelizers,  but  poor  builders.  They  practiced  spiritual 
soil  robbery,  using  up  all  the  religious  fertility  which  their 
evangelism  produced,  but  putting  back  into  the  converts 
very  little  or  no  teaching  and  pastoral  care  for  the  new 
life,  that  it  might  produce  abundantly  and  conserve  its 
own  strength  for  future  productivity.  So  tied  are  Southern 
Baptists  to  pioneer  traditions  that,  for  the  most  part,  their 
churches  are  still  following  them,  apathetically  wondering 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  15 

why  the  protracted  meeting  plantings  seem  somehow  not 
to  produce  crops  so  satisfying  as  those  of  the  pioneer  new 
lands.  There  are  still  some  millions  of  people  in  the 
Southwest  frontier  living  in  pioneer  conditions,  and  some 
more  millions  in  the  Appalachian  and  Ozark  mountain  re- 
gions. Yet  others  in  the  piney-wood,  wire-grass  sections  of 
the  South  are  not  far  removed  from  the  pioneer  life.  In 
some  respects,  these  are  the  most  needy  and  backward 
people  in  this  region.  There  is  in  these  sections  of  our 
population  far  more  pioneering  to  do  than  all  the  Chris- 
tian bodies  of  the  South  are  doing.  But  these  fields 
have  usually  been  cultivated,  so  to  speak,  at  least  till 
the  stumps  of  the  "new-ground"  have  decayed  and  the 
soil  washed  into  gullies.  The  "ringed-around"  trees  have 
fallen,  and  the  hammering  and  clarion  call  of  the  wood- 
pecker is  no  more  heard.  The  cream  of  the  novelty  has 
been  skimmed  from  such  frontiers  as  are  still  to  be  found. 
That  which  remains  is  mainly  hard,  unpicturesque  work. 
Mission  workers  who  cannot  be  satisfied  without  a  world 
of  human  beings  who  have  never  once  heard  about  Jesus, 
have  an  uninteresting  outlook  in  the  South.  There  are 
still  here  those  who  have  never  heard,  but  they  are  rela- 
tively few.  Not  ours  the  pioneersman's  joy  of  discovery 
and  building  where  never  man  built.  Ours  the  less  spec- 
tacular task  of  leading  to  Christ  the  ignorant  and  the 
untaught  and  the  sinful  of  a  so-called  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, and  of  building  where  so  many  others  have  wrought 
that  our  own  effort  will  probably  draw  no  particular  at- 
tention. For  such  tasks  novelty  or  other  adventitious  cir- 
cumstances do  not  offer  inducements.  Only  the  love  of 
Christ  and  a  passion  for  men  in  the  heart  of  the  worker 
can  make  it  fascinating. 


16  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Not  the  call  of  unusual  destitution.  Moral  and  physical 
destitution  have  afforded  material  for  tens  of  thousands 
of  missionary  addresses.  Anxious  to  quicken  the  interest 
of  indifferent  hearers,  speakers  have  used  the  kind 
of  material  which  would  most  quickly  stir  such  people. 
They  have  often  succeeded  so  well  that  they  became  con- 
verts to  their  own  diplomacy,  in  which  they  put  secondary 
considerations  first.  There  is  not  an  intimation  in  the 
Apostolic  practice  or  teaching  that  the  physical  destitu- 
tion or  unusual  depravity  of  people  were  considered  special 
grounds  for  missionary  effort.  Our  Lord's  message  to 
John,  "The  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them," 
is  to  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  shameful  neglect 
of  the  poor  by  other  religious  cults,  and  not  to  indicate 
that  his  gospel  was  for  the  poor  alone.  Not  only  is  the 
South  far  more  prosperous  than  ever  before,  but  the 
masses  of  the  citizenship  are  sharing  in  this  prosperity. 
Relatively  few  stories  of  pathetic  need  remain  to  be  told. 
True,  our  cities  breed  slums,  and  in  these  humanity  breeds 
vice  and  want.  There  are  still  stories  of  need  and  de- 
pravity to  be  found,  terrible  enough  to  stimulate  even  the 
jaded  nerves  of  congregations  which  have  been  long  "fed 
up"  on  such  stories.  But  among  the  actual  constructive 
workers  of  society,  almost  the  only  persons  left  in  want 
or  near-want  are  the  preachers,  who  point  men  to  the 
highest  things,  and  the  teachers,  who  stand  near  to  them 
in  unselfish  and  high  service.  Nor  is  there  unusual  spir- 
itual destitution  in  the  South,  if  we  compare  it  to  most 
so-called  Christian  countries.  Much  less,  if  we  compare 
it  with  pagan  lands.  Almost  everybody  in  the  South  has 
had  a  chance  to  hear  about  Christ;  a  very  large  majority 
have    heard.      True,    it    has    not    struck   in   with   millions. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  17 

And  so  casual  and  ineffective  has  been  the  effort  to  teach 
about  Christ  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  could  say, 
without  departing  far  from  the  truth,  'No  man  careth  for 
my  soul.'  But  from  the  standpoint  of  a  heraldic  proclama- 
tion of  Christ  and  of  freedom  from  unusual  material  des- 
titution, the  needs  of  the  South  are  not  to  be  compared 
with  those  of  many  nations.  If  destitution  and  never  hav- 
ing heard  the  story  of  salvation  are  the  final  standards  by 
which  to  decide  on  our  missionary  effort,  we  may  pass 
the  South  by. 

A  call  to  use  what  God  has  giveo.  The  call  of  the  South 
in  religious  service  is  measured  by  what  God  in  his  provi- 
dential leadings  has  given  the  South.  There  are  at  least 
two  outstanding  facts  in  the  history  of  this  section  which 
suggest  the  direction  in  which  lie  our  missionary  duty  and 
opportunity  in  the  nation.  These  are,  the  experiences  of 
the  South  in  the  Civil  War  and  the  presence  of  the  Negro 
and  the  consequent  scarcity  of  alien  immigration.  More 
than  any  other  part  of  the  country,  the  South  has  a  sec- 
tional consciousness.  Visitors  from  other  sections  some- 
times chide  us  for  this,  as  if  we  were  to  no  avail  dreaming 
of  a  dead  past.  But  this  sense  of  solidarity  is  distinctly 
to  the  credit  and  usefulness  of  the  South.  It  is  the  com- 
bined result  of  war  experiences  which  shook  our  entire 
social  order  to  its  foundations,  and  of  the  preservation  of 
this  section  from  any  significant  influx  of  strange  people. 
The  immigrant  flood  has  done  much  to  help  the  North  to 
forget  the  past  and  its  lessons.  The  West  is  still  too 
young  to  have  acquired  local  experiences  so  sacred.  The 
South  is  old.  Its  experiences  have  been  deep  and  poig- 
nant. And  the  children  of  those  who  drank  to  the  dregs 
her  cup  of  greatest  woe  make  up  practically  the  entire 


18  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

population  of  the  South  of  the  present.  Even  the  present 
generation  has  shared  understandingly  in  the  sufferings  of 
reconstructing  a  civilization  which  had  been  torn  up  by 
the  roots.  The  weary  years  of  isolation  and  suffering  which 
followed  the  war  are  not  long  past.  Immigration  shunned 
the  South  as  a  pestilence  and  capital  did  not  find  in  a 
torn-to-pieces  social  order  the  kind  of  security  it  desired. 
If  immigrants  had  flocked  in  and  outside  money  had  cap- 
tured our  vast  resources,  when  this  section  reeled  amid  its 
calamities,  the  present  South  would  have  less  conscious- 
ness as  a  distinct  section.  But  it  would,  therefore,  be  de- 
prived of  exactly  that  attitude  of  spirit  which  shall  make 
it  worth  most  to  the  nation.  This  unique  awareness  of 
itself  and  of  its  past  is  one  of  the  richest  treasures  pos- 
sessed by  this  section.  Its  consciousness  of  its  own  pains 
and  sorrows,  of  the  gallantry  and  chivalry  of  its  sons,  of 
its  mistakes  and  sufferings,  of  its  superiority  to  the  worst 
calamities  which  came  to  it,  of  its  ability  to  build  a  civiliza- 
tion out  of  ashes,  makes  the  present  South  worth  far  more 
both  to  the  nation  and  to  itself.  Having  had  such  experi- 
ences, it  has  become  not  merely  a  loyal  part  of  the  nation, 
but  something  more.  That  something  more  is  the  wisdom 
and  the  strength  and  a  certain  depth  of  soul  which  the 
South  has  acquired  through  the  bitterness  of  trials  which 
purged  it  of  dross  and  have  healed  without  hate.  We  do 
well  to  treasure  the  lessons  of  the  history  of  our  section. 
It  is  to  conserve  the  spiritual  dynamic  with  which  God  has 
equipped  us  for  building  in  our  own  section  a  great  Chris- 
tian civilization  and  aiding  to  the  same  end  in  the  other 
sections  of  our  beloved  country. 

To  serve  the  spiritual  mission  of  America.     Nobody  any 
longer  doubts  the  entire  loyalty  of  the  South  to  the  nation. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  19 

Its  unwavering  devotion  to  America's  fight  for  democracy 
in  the  great  World  War  laid  the  last  ghost  of  doubt  that 
even  sectional  politicians  could  summons.  This  re-estab- 
lished confidence  brings  with  it  an  enlarged  obligation  on 
the  part  of  the  Christian  South  to  take  stock  of  the  forces 
by  which  we  may  aid  in  maintaining  a  Christian  nation. 
The  greatest  service  we  can  render  is  to  develop  and  main- 
lain  in  our  own  section  a  vital  religion,  which  shall  dom- 
inate our  economic,  political,  and  social  institutions.  The 
division  of  the  larger  denominational  bodies  into  Northern 
and  Southern  organizations,  places  the  responsibility  for 
each  section  directly  on  the  organization  serving  that  sec- 
tion. For  the  most  part,  denominational  comity  places  the 
field  of  service  of  Southern  religious  bodies  in  the  South. 
Therefore  denominational  organization  usually  corresponds 
territorily  to  the  underlying  spiritual  fact  that  the  first  and 
greatest  religious  service  we  can  render  other  sections  is 
to  see  that  our  own  is  really  permeated  by  the  spirit 
and  power  of  the  gospel.  If  the  South  is  really  Christian, 
social  contact,  as  well  as  the  inter-relations  of  business  and 
politics,  will  enable  us  to  help  religiously  the  people  of  other 
sections  far  more  than  we  could  do  by  sending  mission- 
ary workers  to  them,  especially  as  they  are  already  served 
by  the  various  evangelical  bodies.  If  we  shall  realize 
our  call  to  serve  the  spiritual  mission  of  America,  it  will 
mightily  stimulate  our  religious  efforts  among  our  own 
people.  Southern  religious  bodies  have  held  on  to  the 
supernatural  in  religion  and  to  the  inerrancy  of  Scripture 
revelation  with  a  tenacity  which  is  a  blessing  to  other  sec- 
tions, where  rationalism  and  liberalism  have  done  much 
to  rob  Christian  faith  of  its  vital  power.  If  God  shall 
give  us  to  see  the  day  of  our  opportunity,  so  far  from 


20  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

being  infected  by  the  disease  of  doubt  which  has  laid  hold 
of  many,  we  of  the  Southern  religious  bodies  shall  with 
increased  devotion  and  determination  cling  to  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints,  which  alone  can  avail  for 
humanity's  needs.  At  the  same  time,  we  must  arouse  our- 
selves from  the  sinful  lethargy  which  has  permitted  three- 
fourths  of  the  church  members  of  the  South  to  depend 
for  spiritual  instruction  and  church  life  on  the  near-starva- 
tion diet  of  a  once-a-month  sermon  by  an  absentee  pastor. 
Our  duty  to  the  nation,  as  well  as  to  the  South,  calls  upon 
us  to  break  away  from  this  practice.  It  would  be  presump- 
tuous to  think  we  can  acquit  ourselves  creditably  in  serv- 
ing the  nation,  with  a  religious  program  that  does  not  even 
provide  for  the  nurturing  of  the  lives  of  most  of  our 
converts. 

The  call  of  onr  home.  The  home  is  the  oldest  divinely 
established  institution.  It  is  God's  unit  of  service  for  pro- 
viding the  graces  and  virtues  necessary  for  mankind.  The 
present  world  phenomena  of  the  ends  of  the  earth  being 
brought  close  together  by  transportation  and  inter-com- 
munication, does  not  change  that  fact.  The  bringing  of 
the  world  into  "one  neighborhood"  immeasurably  increases 
the  needs  of  a  spiritual  dynamic  to  strengthen  the  bulwarks 
of  the  home.  Pure  springs  are  essential  to  healthful 
streams;  they  can  come  from  no  other  source.  Civilization 
is  in  a  flux.  Commerce,  immigration,  emigration,  the  hor- 
rors of  a  titanic  war,  have  compelled  us  to  learn  to  think 
in  cosmopolitan  terms.  Thinkers  are  trying  to  tutor  us  for 
the  world  citizenship  toward  which  inventions  and  economic 
forces  are  impelling  us.  These  forces  are  in  the  ascendant 
and  the  Christian  body  that  would  serve  its  day  must 
adjust  itself  to  them.     Every  saving  force  in  society  will 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  21 

find  in  this  world-pull  a  challenge  as  to  whether  it  has 
home-resources  with  strength  and  devotion  for  such  stupen- 
dous tasks.  Have  we  the  faith  and  strength  to  enter  for 
Christ  these  world-doors  which  are  being  brought  so  near 
to  us?  There  can  be  no  adequate  answer  which  does  not 
include  the  development  and  maintenance  at  home  of  good- 
ness, purity,  and  strength  adequate  for  such  unprecedented 
strains.  Our  day  is  almost  obliviously  enamoured  of  great 
things,  but  its  passion  is  directed  to  material  largeness, 
rather  than  to  greatness  of  spirit.  Therefore  we  are 
in  grave  danger  of  despising  things  which  are  small  as 
spectacles,  but  great  in  their  spiritual  significance.  There 
is  no  more  sinister  threat  to  the  spiritual  forces  of  the 
present  than  that  which  is  contained  in  the  tendencies  which 
are  undermining  the  home.  No  material  grandeur,  no  mar- 
vels of  invention,  no  mountains  of  wealth,  no  wonders  of 
great  organization  in  business  or  religion,  can  save  that 
nation  from  disintegration  and  ruin  whose  people  have  lost 
their  power  to  idealize  and  magnify  the  home  and  fight  for 
its  safety  and  purity. 

The  call  of  the  homeland.  Next  to  the  home  comes  the 
home-section.  To  the  Southern  Christian  the  call  of  the 
South  is  the  call  of  his  home.  In  this  day  of  the  worship 
of  eye-filling  largeness,  some  writers  decry  any  loyalties  or 
devotions  or  tasks  that  do  not  patently  profess  to  grasp  the 
whole  world.  They  challenge  one's  loyal  concern  for  his 
toWn  or  State  or  section  or  religious  denomination — par- 
ticularly his  religious  denomination.  They  set  forth  that 
such  allegiances  somehow  convict  him  of  narrowness  and 
provincialism.  This  worship  of  mere  bigness  is  one  of  the 
most  perplexing  and  subtly  dangerous  tendencies  of  the 
present.     This  capitulation  to  the  appeal  of  the  big  is  a 


22  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

snare  to  many.  It  lends  itself  to  a  pose  which,  without 
cost  or  trouble,  gains  the  favor  of  the  thoughtless,  while 
the  very  bigness  of  the  interests  espoused  often  enables  the 
advocate  to  hide  from  himself  and  from  others  any  sense 
of  his  own  personal  responsibility.  In  missions,  as  in  citizen- 
ship, to  be  interested  in  the  far-away  after  the  manner  that 
allows  one  to  despise  the  worth  of  the  near,  is  to  betray 
breadth  at  the  expense  of  depth — sometimes  at  the  expense 
of  sincerity.  A  man  who  about  his  own  home  finds  nothing 
worth  doing  to  help  people,  is  about  the  least  fit  of  all  to 
be  sent  as  a  missionary  to  other  lands.  He  cannot  be 
worth  anything  there  until  he  quits  dreaming,  makes  himself 
at  home,  and  goes  to  work  to  save  needy  and  sinful  people. 
A  Christian  in  the  South  who  thinks  it  is  narrow  to  give 
his  best  thought  and  effort  to  save  the  South,  has  surely 
not  learned  his  interest  in  the  world  beyond  from  the  Lord 
Jesus.  There  is  no  possible  narrowness  or  selfishness  in 
any  effort  anywhere  to  bring  the  lost  to  Jesus.  The  mother 
who  pours  out  her  heart  to  God  for  the  salvation  of  her 
child  is  as  unselfish  as  she  would  be  praying  for  the  Indian 
on  the  plains  or  the  Chinaman  in  Canton.  The  Holy  Spirit 
prompts  each  act,  and  shall  we  discredit  her  agony  of  soul 
for  her  boy's  salvation  by  saying  that  her  natural  mother 
love  has  somehow  made  her  holy  passion  relatively  selfish? 
There  is  no  geography  or  mathematics  in  Christian  love. 

A  passion  to  grapple  with  sin  at  close  quarters.  The  call 
of  missions  in  the  South  is  the  call  to  grapple  with  sin  at 
close  quarters.  This  passion  is  not  different  in  quality  from 
that  which  animates  and  sustains  our  brave  foreign  mis- 
sionaries on  many  a  distant  field.  In  their  evangelistic  ap- 
peals, in  the  instruction  in  the  churches,  in  the  weary  rou- 
tine of  days  in  school  work,  it  is  this  passion  which  sustains 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  23 

their  hearts  and  makes  the  burden  Ught.  Men  and  women 
such  as  these,  if  they  were  working  at  home,  would  grapple 
at  first  hand  with  sinning  humanity's  need.  For  the  sake 
of  world-salvation,  I  plead  that  we  shall  have  a  passion 
for  men  because  of  their  need  and  worth,  rather  than 
because  of  their  numbers  or  geographical  location.  If  we 
desire  to  know  whether  our  faith  is  of  the  world-conquer- 
ing kind,  let  us  put  it  to  the  test  of  whether  it  has  virtue 
to  conquer  erring  men  and  women  in  our  own  community. 
Joseph  E.  McAfee,  in  "Missions  Striking  Home,"  defines 
the  heart-wrenching  passion  which  we  need  in  America 
against  sin  and  for  sinners  as  being  a  sallying  forth  in 
search  of  the  Holy  Grail  and  reining  up  the  steed  at  the 
plaint  of  the  beggar  crouching  at  the  palace  gate.  It  is  the 
plain  putting  to  one's-self  the  question.  Do  I  care?  Great 
as  are  the  needs  of  the  lost  in  many  lands,  beautiful  and 
stimulating  as  are  the  romance  and  obedience  to  our  Master 
which  impels  us  to  support  devoted  workers  on  far-away, 
lonely  posts,  for  their  sake  as  well  as  ours,  we  need  to  test 
ourselves  by  the  difficult  problems  and  the  forbidding  facts 
of  sin  at  our  doors.  If  we  have  not  love  to  grapple  with 
the  wearisome  and  offensive  problems  of  our  sinning  neigh- 
bor, how  have  we  the  love  with  which  our  Master  would 
have  us  save  the  unknown  of  many  a  foreign  land?  If  we 
cannot  love  and  help  the  Negro  in  the  South,  our  profes- 
sions of  concern  for  the  black  hordes  in  African  jungles 
convict  us  of  not  understanding  our  own  hearts.  The  Chi- 
nese in  the  laundry  is  at  least  as  much  our  responsibility 
as  the  Chinese  in  Shanghai.  Our  sinning  Anglo-Saxon 
neighbor  is  as  dear  to  the  heart  of  Christ  as  he  would  be  if 
he  was  of  any  other  race.  The  man  in  whom  the  love  of 
Christ  is  will  not  be  careful  to  count  noses  or  separate  races 


24  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

in  bestowing  his  love.  The  true  heart  is  not  to  be  pried 
open  by  the  leverage  either  of  numbers  or  of  nationality 
or  skin-color. 

To  Chmtianize,  as  well  as  eyangelize.  If  by  the  evan« 
gelization  we  mean  the  coming  of  people  into  the  churches 
on  a  profession  of  faith,  the  South  is  unusually  well  evan- 
gelized. If  we  put  into  the  word  a  fuller  meaning,  we  shall 
at  once  lose  our  leadership.  The  word  salvation  includes 
more  than  eyangelization.  Jesus  came  to  save  both  the 
soul  and  the  life.  The  leadership  of  Southern  churches  in 
bringing  souls  to  Christ  has  been  coupled  with  an  almost 
unsurpassed  backwardness  in  nurturing  lives  for  Christ.  We 
have  saved  souls,  and  the  infant  disciples  have  for  the  most 
part  been  turned  loose  in  their  babyhood  to  look  out  for 
themselves.  The  results  have  been  various.  Not  a  few 
have  both  survived  and  grown  to  the  stature  of  mature 
Christian  manhood  and  womanhood.  An  almost  unbeliev- 
ably large  number  have  been  lost  to  the  world  and  to  false 
faiths.  A  still  larger  number  have  lived  at  a  poor  dying 
rate,  dwarfed  into  permanent  spiritual  infancy  because  they 
were  not  nourished  on  the  strong  meat  and  often  not  even 
on  the  milk  of  the  gospel.  We  need  a  more  comprehensive 
definition  of  salvation.  How  shall  Southern  Baptists  escape 
responsibility  for  their  prodigal  waste,  their  almost  incred- 
ible disregard  of  our  Lord's  command  to  feed  the  sheep 
and  shepherd  the  flock?  We  cannot  do  it.  The  pastors 
cannot  do  it.  Still  less,  I  think,  can  the  Christian  bodies 
do  so,  whose  leadership  and  scholarship  have  been  trusted 
by  the  rank  and  file  to  find  the  truth  and  to  point  them  to 
suitable  ideals  and  tasks,  looking  toward  its  realization. 
Would  God  this  Southern  Baptist  people  in  its  heart  could 
come  to  define  salvation  to  mean  a  saved  soul,  nurtured 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  25 

through  the  appointed  teaching  into  a  saved  and  serving 
life!  If  our  people  would  accept  this  definition  and  would 
go  to  work  in  a  brave  and  comprehensive  way  for  its  reali- 
zation. Baptists  in  the  South  would  immediately  find  among 
their  own  people  the  largest  and  most  blessed  work  of  love 
possible  for  any  American  Christian  body  to  have.  If  they 
will  not  accept  it,  there  is  still  a  large  work  of  evangelism 
to  do — larger  far  than  is  being  done — but  it  is  an  incon- 
siderable thing  compared  with  the  lost  millions  beyond  the 
seas.  Alas!  If  we  will  not  Christianize  as  well  as  evan- 
gelize our  own,  it  is  too  much  to  expect  our  fondest  dreams 
of  gospel  conquest  in  foreign  lands  to  embrace  more  than 
half  the  program  of  Christ,  who  came  to  save  the  life  as 
well  as  the  soul,  and  who  in  the  Great  Commission  puts 
"teaching  them  to  observe  all  things"  by  the  side  of  dis- 
cipling  and  baptizing. 

A  call  to  wed  doctrine  and  service.  There  has  never 
been  an  age  so  intolerant  of  Christian  doctrine  as  the 
present.  Doctrine  means  teaching,  and  the  doctrines  of 
the  New  Testament  are  but  the  inspired  teachings  of  our 
Lord  and  his  disciples.  But  the  antipathy  of  some  in  our 
day  to  doctrinal  teaching  is  of  such  a  waspish  nature  that 
it  would  be  ludicrous  were  it  not  serious.  Two  main  ob- 
jections of  the  age  to  doctrine  is  that  it  is  narrow  and 
intolerant,  but  it  would  be  hard  to  find  even  among  the 
most  straight-laced  Christian  sect  an  intolerance  whose 
bigotry  and  irascible  railing  and  narrowness  equal  that  of 
these  same  enemies  of  doctrine.  The  religious  shibboleth  of 
the  age  is  utility.  Many  of  those  who  follow  this  cult  of 
humanitarian  service  either  deny  the  deity  of  Christ  or  are 
uncertain  about  it.  Those  clear  teachings  of  Scripture 
about  his  deity  have  the  misfortune  to  be  doctrines,  and 


26  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

these  devotees  of  spineless  religion,  by  their  own  confes- 
sion, hate  doctrines,  which  they  affect  to  beHeve  moss-back 
and  discredited.  The  irresponsible  popular  theological 
twaddle  in  Sunday  supplements,  popular  magazines,  and 
the  books  of  rationalistic  professors  of  learning  in  great 
educational  institutions,  have  not  yet  made  the  Christian 
bodies  of  the  South  turn  away  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  for  the  modern  gospel  of  salvation  through  bettering 
the  environment.  I  wish  I  could  say  that  Southern  preach- 
ers and  churches  have  not  been  at  all  affected  in  their 
allegiance  to  Scripture  doctrines  by  all  this  clamor.  But 
I  cannot.  Southern  Christianity,  however,  has  not  yet 
been  seriously  weakened  by  the  new  world-gospel  of  hu- 
manitarian service,  aside  from  the  Bible  and  its  Christ. 
Southern  Christianity  has  an  unmatched  opportunity  to 
serve  the  nation  and  the  world  by  standing  firm  in  these 
parlous  days  for  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  and  for  salva- 
tion through  the  precious  blood  of  the  crucified  Christ,  a 
stumbling-block  to  the  learned  and  foolishness  to  the 
dilettante  and  pleasure-seeker.  If  we  shall  stand  firm  in 
the  faith,  and  add  to  our  faith  knowledge,  a  knowledge  and 
purpose  which  shall  eventuate  in  the  kind  of  service  which 
Christ  taught,  we  shall,  under  God,  be  a  saving  force  both 
for  the  nation  and  the  world.  By  nurturing  Christian  lives 
so  that  they  shall  count  in  Christly  service,  we  shall  gain- 
say the  empty  evolution-doctrine  that  salvation  is  by  way 
of  learning  to  kill  the  typhoid  germs,  and,  generally,  keep- 
ing the  outside  of  the  platter  clean.  Are  we  big  enough 
spiritually  to  confront  with  confidence  this  opportunity,  this 
challenge?  If  we  fail  here,  these  false  prophets  will  ensnare 
many  by  their  caricatures  of  our  weakness.  The  mission 
call  of  the  South  is  that  we  shall  both  be  big  enough,  and 
perform  the  doing  of  it. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  27 

A  call  to  save  society.  The  religion  of  Christ,  by  saving 
men  one  by  one,  has  always  been  the  most  potent  influence 
for  social  betterment.  He  who  does  not  find  this  on  many 
a  page  of  history,  certainly  is  not  acute  enough  to  be  fit 
to  sponsor  something  else  as  a  catholicon,  with  the  ex- 
pectation of  sensible  people  following.  Not  long  ago,  one 
of  the  most  prominent  ministers  in  the  South  preached  a 
sermon  on:  "The  World's  Amazing  Effort  to  get  away 
from  Christ."  A  more  impressive  illustration  of  that  effort 
could  not  be  found  than  the  almost  incredible  popularity 
which  salvation  by  environment  has  attained  as  a  religious 
ideal.  With  history  abundantly  verifying  the  power  of  the 
gospel  of  individual  salvation  through  Christ,  to  lift  up 
society,  with  the  clear  and  unmistakable  teachings  of  Christ 
and  his  Apostles  that  his  Kingdom  was  to  be  founded  on 
personal  faith  in  him,  with  the  record  of  his  own  teachings 
that  he  went  after  the  heart  and  not  the  outward  man,  and 
that  he  set  up  his  Kingdom  in  the  midst  of  far  worse  social 
evils  than  we  now  know,  without  instituting  a  campaign 
against  them,  yet  the  modern  partisan  of  salvation  by  so- 
cial improvement  boldly  seeks  to  discredit  the  churches  of 
Christ,  borrows  such  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  as  he  can 
use  for  his  purposes,  and  without  the  quiver  of  an  eye- 
lash ignores  the  appeal  of  the  crucified  Christ  for  his  heart 
and  life.  For  the  last  fifteen  years,  America  has  endured 
at  the  hands  of  the  social  Salvationists  a  vast  nation-wide 
mania  for  uplift  which  has  left  the  masses  of  the  people 
weary  and  more  or  less  disgusted.  The  single  outstanding 
reform  of  prohibition  is  not  the  fruit  of  the  efforts  of  muck- 
rakers  and  bureaus  and  foundations  for  investigation  and 
surveys.  It  is  creditable  chiefly  to  the  faithful  work  of 
preachers  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  of  men  of  faith  and 


28  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

motives  similar  to  theirs.  Perhaps  it  is  true  that  many  are 
awakening  to  understand  that  to  change  a  man's  clothes 
and  even  to  fill  his  stomach,  without  changing  his  mind 
and  the  innermost  ideals  of  his  nature,  is  no  more  than 
"poking  fire  from  the  top."  It  is  written  so  plainly  that  all 
may  read  that  the  titanic  struggle,  foisted  on  the  world  by 
Germany,  was  a  confession  that  a  nation  may  lead  in 
science,  sanitation,  co-operative  industry,  and  human 
learning,  and  yet  the  inner  sources  of  its  power  may  be 
brutal,  godless,  and  unspeakably  corrupt.  Who  can  fail  to 
see  here  that  God  is  writing  in  letters  of  fire  before  the 
eyes  of  the  civilized  world  the  unspeakable  folly  and  de- 
spair of  trusting  in  science,  evolution,  second-command- 
before-the-first  Samaritanism,  or  anything  else  but  Christ 
only,  for  salvation,  both  for  an  individual  and  for  a  nation! 
The  fact  that  Southern  Christianity  has  been  singularly 
safeguarded  from  this  false  doctrine  of  salvation  by  en- 
vironment, is  a  clarion  challenge  to  it  to  stand  firm  in  the 
faith  of  the  Lord  of  Glory,  both  for  the  South's  sake  and 
the  nation's  sake,  both  for  the  sake  of  the  souls  of  people 
and  for  the  sake  of  society,  which  approximates  a  salvation 
exactly  in  proportion  as  it  is  made  up  of  men  and  women 
who  knew  Christ  and  live  for  him. 

To  consecrate  industry  and  wealth.  America's  wealth 
is  more  than  that  of  any  other  four  nations  in  the 
world.  In  recent  years  the  rate  of  increase  has  been  mar- 
velously  accelerated.  There  has  not  been  a  more  spectac- 
ular element  in  this  development  than  the  forging  forward 
of  the  South.  In  1912,  the  wealth  of  the  South  was  $42,- 
000,000,000,  nearly  one-fourth  that  of  the  nation.  Mr. 
Richard  H.  Edmonds,  who  is  the  leading  authority  on 
Southern  economic  conditions,  estimated,  in  1917,  that  the 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  29 

wealth  of  the  South  totalled  about  $60,000,000,000,  which 
is  equal  to  that  of  the  whole  nation  in  1 888.  In  1917,  our 
farm  crops  were  valued  at  nearly  $6,000,000,000,  more 
than  the  value  of  those  of  the  nation  in  1912,  and  yet  this 
section  has  not  reached  more  than  one-half  of  its  agricul- 
tural capacity.  The  growth  of  manufacturing  has  been 
equally  impressive.  After  fhe  war,  some  superficial  persons 
in  other  sections  patronizingly  called  us  indolent  and  leth- 
argic. It  is  amusing  to  observe  how  these  prophets  are 
now  seeking  to  retreat  without  confusion  from  their  be- 
littling prognostications.  For,  behold  the  South,  freed  from 
its  fetters,  giant-like,  forging  ahead  in  those  very  material 
advantages  about  which  the  North  had  developed  much 
complacency!  The  South  of  the  twentieth  century  is  not 
inherently  more  energetic  and  resourceful  than  it  was  in 
the  nineteenth.  It  is  merely  directing  its  energies  through 
the  speeded-up  inventions  of  a  machine  age.  By  the  build- 
ing of  cities,  it  has  brought  samples  of  its  energy  and 
resources  into  those  restricted  areas,  where  the  casual 
passers-by,  who  do  most  of  the  writing  and  talking  for  the 
public,  may  be  impressed  with  its  spectacular  features.  But 
Southern  energy,  plus  present-day  machinery,  has  given  a 
result  of  intense  pre-occupation  on  the  part  of  our  people 
which  is  a  challenge  to  the  strength  of  the  saving  forces 
of  our  religion.  Our  money-gathering  men  are  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  those  who  went  before.  They  are 
making  more  money,  but  their  intense  absorption  in  the 
game  is  to  be  explained  by  the  large  part  machinery  now 
plays  in  the  business  game,  rather  than  by  assuming  that 
they  love  money  more  than  their  forebears.  We  have  made 
machinery  and  put  it  to  work  to  save  our  time,  and,  be- 
hold, it  has  turned  on  us  and  exacted  more  of  our  time  than 


80  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

we  ever  gave  before.  The  telephone  on  the  desk  enables 
a  business  man  to  confer  with  thirty  others  in  a  day,  where 
he  was  formerly  able  to  see  only  five.  Immediately  the 
whole  scheme  of  his  life  is  geared  up  six  times  tighter 
to  make  full  use  of  this  talking  machine.  So  with  the 
automobile  and  all  the  rest  of  our  "time-saving"  machinery. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  nation,  the  South  is  being  chained  to 
the  machine.  Can  we  escape  the  chain?  Must  our  souls 
be  geared  to  pulleys  and  cogs  and  belts  and  wires?  Have 
we  a  religious  faith  and  idealism  real  and  strong  enough 
to  use  these  inventions  and  conveniences  without  becoming 
their  slaves?  They  help  us  to  win  wealth.  Have  we 
Christianity  enough  to  use  that  wealth  and  not  let  it  crush 
our  souls?  The  South  has  a  better  chance  than  other 
section  to  win  the  victory  over  dollar-lust  and  the  machine. 
There  is  a  peculiar  responsibility  on  the  South,  in  the  first 
blush  of  our  material  wealth,  to  show  the  nation  that  we 
learned  in  the  school  of  adversity  not  to  become  fat-hearted 
so  soon  as  our  stomachs  and  barns  and  banks  were  full. 
If,  indeed,  we  have  learned  this  lesson,  we  shall  be  able  to 
bless  the  nation,  for  our  example  shall  woo  others.  Only 
thus  shall  we  justify  our  claim  to  that  purity  of  soul  and 
clearness  of  vision  which  we  assert  made  the  South  superior 
to  the  misfortunes  of  war  and  reconstruction. 

The  solution  of  a  race  problem.  By  far  the  larger  part 
of  the  actual  burden  of  the  Negro  race  problem  falls  on 
the  South.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  human  problems  any 
people  were  ever  destined  to  grapple  with.  It  is  inex- 
tricably mixed  with  the  business  life  and  daily  contacts  of 
this  section.  In  the  proper  place,  there  is  something  to  be 
said  about  how  politics  and  education  and  the  economic 
life  of  the  South  may  react  on  the  Negro  to  his  good  or 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  31 

injury.  It  has  been  generally  accepted  by  the  Negro's 
best  informed  friends  and  by  his  own  worthiest  leaders 
that  the  only  basis  on  which  we  may  hope  really  to  solve 
the  problem  of  the  blacks  in  the  South  is  the  Christian 
religion.  As  well  believe  that  the  learning  and  scientific 
victories  of  Germany  will  save  her  from  bestiality  and 
fiendish  cruelty  in  war,  as  to  expect  a  stronger  race  to  do 
right  by  a  weaker,  or  a  weaker  to  respond  to  right  treat- 
ment by  the  stronger,  on  any  less  sanctions  and  motives 
than  those  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  The  solution  of  the 
Negro  question  in  the  South  is  the  final  test  of  the  effec- 
tiveness of  our  Southern  faith  to  help  other  races  than  our 
own.  Others  may  help,  as  they  have  done.  But  in  the 
last  analysis  the  Negro's  need  is  a  call  to  the  South,  a 
call  which  only  the  South  can  answer.  By  our  success 
or  failure  in  answering  this  challenge,  the  world  will  righUy 
judge  the  quality  and  value  of  our  religion. 

To  sliow  what  evangelical  faith  is  worth.  Romanist 
leaders  in  America  are  boldly  announcing  that  evangelical 
Christianity  is  a  failure.  It  is  evident  that  their  more 
astute  leaders  do  not  believe  the  utterance  of  their  own 
prophets.  But  the  aggressive  boldness  of  Romanism  in 
this  country  indicates  their  confidence  that  they  are  attain- 
ing power  to  thwart  religious  liberty  and  the  separation 
of  Church  and  State.  Through  large  immigrant  streams, 
of  which  about  two-thirds  are  Romanists,  through  the  con- 
gestion of  these  aliens  in  cities,  and  through  their  segre- 
gation in  separate  communities  and  parochial  schools,  the 
priests  are  making  some  headway  in  keeping  them  from 
learning  and  adopting  the  American  spirit.  Being  the  most 
astute  politicians  in  the  world,  with  scruples  hardly  more 
squeamish  than  those  of  a  German  junker,  Romanists  have 


32  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

had  considerable  success  in  meddling,  to  their  own  ad- 
vantage and  the  disadvantage  of  others,  with  our  gov- 
ernmental forces.  In  the  South  evangelical  religion  still 
dominates.  In  this  section,  if  the  count  were  made  fairly, 
and  not  by  the  whole  population  of  Romanists  versus  the 
actual  adult  church  membership  of  evangelicals,  there  is 
only  about  one  Romanist  to  eighteen  evangelicals.  In 
other  sections  there  is  actually  about  one  Romanist  to 
three  evangelicals,  or,  by  the  Catholic  count,  one  adherent 
of  the  papacy  to  one  evangelical.  One  of  the  gravest 
threats  to  American  principles  and  liberties  in  the  sinister 
and  unscrupulous  hand  of  priestcraft,  forever  meddling  in 
the  affairs  of  national,  State,  and  municipal  government. 
Even  in  the  South,  there  are  some  notorious  examples  of 
this  in  our  cities.  But,  thanks  largely  to  the  Negro  and 
to  our  post-bellum  poverty,  evangelical  faith  is  still  domi- 
nant in  every  section  of  the  South.  These  two  forces  have 
effectually  discouraged  the  coming  of  Romanist  immigrant 
throngs.  Was  not  the  hand  of  God  in  this,  protecting  us 
from  this  destroyer  of  religious  freedom  and  true  democ- 
racy, so  that  in  the  days  to  come  of  added  strength  South- 
ern Christianity  might  be  able,  by  example,  intelligent  sym- 
pathy, and  timely  assistance,  to  come  to  the  aid  of  those 
sections  which  are  harassed  and  afflicted  with  this  religio- 
political  octopus,  this  scarlet  woman  of  prophecy?  I  thank 
God  that  he  has  kept  the  Romanized  aliens  from  flooding 
our  section  when  we  were  too  weak  perhaps  to  put  to 
naught  the  cunning  chicanery  of  a  priesthood  which  domi- 
nates the  consciences  of  its  followers,  while  it  betrays 
and  prostitutes  the  liberties  and  rights  of  a  free  people. 
There  is  a  tremendous  obligation  on  the  South  to  keep  the 
fires  of  religious  liberty  and  Christian  service  burning  here 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH  33 

so  brightly  that  it  shall  be  a  bulwark  to  aid  other  threat- 
ened sections,  and  preserve  the  value  of  the  Republic's 
testimony  before  the  down-trodden  of  earth. 

To  help  the  world  by  example.  Of  all  men,  the  foreign 
missionaries  most  keenly  realize  the  handicap  of  a  life  in 
America  the  samples  of  which  do  not  at  all  come  up  to  the 
gospel  they  are  preaching  to  the  heathen.  It  is  not  en- 
tirely fair  for  the  heathen  to  judge  our  religion  by  some 
of  our  people  and  practices,  just  as  it  is  not  entirely  just 
for  a  community  to  judge  the  religion  of  Christ  by  some 
of  the  members  of  local  churches.  But  in  each  case  they 
do  so,  and  our  Lord  himself  has  said:  "By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them."  In  order  to  strengthen  the  hands 
of  our  missionaries  on  every  foreign  field,  there  is  nothing 
so  much  needed  as  the  demonstration  here  in  the  home- 
land, where  Christianity  has  its  best  chance  and  whence 
our  evangels  go,  that  it  is  really  able  to  save  the  people, 
so  that  they  shall  in  all  their  relations  eschew  evil  and  do 
the  right.  The  leaven  of  democracy  is  surging  among  the 
masses  of  the  whole  world,  largely  through  the  influence 
of  American  ideals  and  example.  Our  American  inven- 
tions and  manufactures  have  penetrated  even  into  Africa 
and  the  isles  of  the  sea.  The  late  Emperor  of  Japan  stated 
to  American  tourists  that  all  the  cities  and  islands  of  his 
empire  were  being  Americanized,  largely  through  Japanese 
who  had  returned  from  America.  Our  colleges  are 
thronged  with  foreign  students  and  the  world  with  Amer- 
ican travelers  and  business  men.  In  recent  press  reports 
were  the  following  words  from  Hsuch  Tehyi,  the  head  of 
the  special  Chinese  political  mission  to  our  government  at 
Washington:  "The  United  States  is  our  pattern.  America 
does  not  know  China  and  we  are,  therefore,  striving  to 


34  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

open  your  eyes.  We  are  sending  our  students  by  the 
thousands  to  your  centers  of  education  to  get  American 
ideas  and  American  methods  for  the  benefit  of  our  people. 
They  are  yearning  for  Americanism."  The  whole  world  is 
open  to  the  gospel  of  America,  and  America's  message  is 
being  preached  by  many  a  non-commissioned  evangel. 
Never  in  history  did  a  nation  have  such  an  opportunity 
to  Christianize  other  nations  through  being  really  Christian 
itself.  Our  foreign  missionaries  are  regularly  the  most  out- 
spoken advocates  of  a  thorough-going  Home  Mission  pro- 
gram in  America.  No  section  of  our  country  has  a  better 
opportunity  than  the  South  to  make  of  itself  an  example 
to  the  groping  hearts  of  hungry  humanity  in  the  nations 
of  earth,  showing  that  Christianity  really  does  Christianize 
a  people,  and  that  it  can  lift  business,  community  and  in- 
dustrial life,  politics  and  national  purpose,  out  of  the 
gutter  of  greed  and  selfishness  on  to  the  high  plane  of  the 
Golden  Rule. 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  I. 

(It  is  intended  that  the  questions  following  the  chapters  in 
this  book  shall  bring  out  the  leading  thoughts  of  the  text,  rather 
than  cover  the  lesson  in  detail.  They  are  suggestive  rather 
than  exhaustive,  and  will  afford  a  point  of  departure  for  self- 
tests  by  the  student  and  class  drill  by  the  leaders.) 

1.  Show  that  the  mission  call  of  the  South  is  not  primarily  the 
call  of  numbers,  pioneer  opportunity,  or  great  spiritual 
destitution. 

2.  Show  by  the  South  as  an  example,  how  devotion  to  the  home 
carries  with  it  blessings  for  all  which  lies  beyond. 

3.  Define  the  call  of  the  South  in  terms  of  grappling  with  sin 
at  close  quarters;  of  saving  the  life  as  well  as  the  soul;  of 
wedding  doctrine  and  service;  of  saving  society;  of  con- 
secrating wealth;  of  the  worth  of  evangelical  religion;  of 
helping  the  world  by  example. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS. 

Needs  to  be  understood  and  accepted.  The  average 
young  preacher,  completing  his  preparation  for  his  life's 
work,  if  he  considers  the  apF>eal  for  service  in  foreign  lands, 
will  do  so  on  the  basis  of  the  needs  and  the  worth  of  the 
service.  Difficulties  or  disadvantages  will  not  deter  him. 
But  when  one  of  these  is  asked  to  consider  taking  hold  in  a 
difficult  and  neglected  field  in  the  homeland,  he  often 
refuses  to  consider  it.  For  his  guiding  principle  is  now 
different.  He  demands  that  the  field  shall  afford  an  op- 
portunity for  fellowship  with  his  brethren,  and  educational 
and  social  advantages  for  his  family.  It  must  be  a  location 
which  will  likely  afford  an  early  opportunity  for  advance- 
ment to  a  larger  and  more  prominent  place.  Why  should 
lack  of  advancement  and  of  opportunities  for  fellowship 
and  comfort  be  inapplicable  in  the  one  case,  while  in  the 
other  they  often  appear  to  be  actually  determinative?  These 
men  do  not  seem  to  recognize  that  the  principle  of  mis- 
sionary service  should  be  dominant  in  the  homeland  in 
choosing  a  field  of  labor.  They  do  not  surrender  to  the 
appeal  of  destitution  and  spiritual  opportunity,  when  the 
field  of  service  is  what  they  regard  commonplace.  For 
this  reason  and  for  others  which  are  similar  this  chapter 
seeks  to  set  forth  some  home  principles  in  Missions. 

One  principle,  several  agencies.  One  principle  impels  to 
the  support  of  all  Christian  missions.  It  is  all  the  work  of 
our  Lord.    We  may  expect  him  to  be  pleased  with  the  zeal 


86  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  a  worker  for  his  own  department  of  the  world-field,  but 
not  with  a  partisan  zeal.  A  speaker  or  writer  for  missions 
ought  to  have  passion  and  enthusiasm.  He  will  thus  more 
vividly  present  his  cause.  But  he  must  not  give  just  ground 
for  the  suspicion  of  partisanship.  He  must  not  in  magnify- 
ing one  field  of  service  allow  himself  to  seem  to  disparage 
the  importance  of  others.  At  the  same  time,  audiences 
should  be  slow  to  criticise  a  speaker  for  an  apparent  lack 
at  this  point.  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus  used  to  tell  his  classes 
at  the  theological  seminary  that  a  speaker  who  was  not 
capable  of  becoming  so  wrought  up  that  he  would  some- 
times overstate  his  contention,  would  not  be  able  to  make 
much  impression  with  all  that  he  might  say  that  was  not 
overstated.  In  setting  forth  the  home  principle  in  missions 
in  these  pages,  I  earnestly  hope  that  I  shall  be  able  to  give 
it  something  of  its  real  force.  I  believe  an  adequate  state- 
ment of  the  home  principle  of  missions  is  needed,  that  a 
large  proportion  of  our  people  have  never  yielded  them- 
selves to  the  grip  of  American  mission  needs,  nor  understood 
their  full  significance.  But  I  think  I  am  equally  solicitous 
that  I  may  be  saved  from  setting  down  any  expression  which 
might  detract  from  the  importance  and  greatness  of  mis- 
sion principles  and  activities  in  other  fields.  To  accom- 
plish both  of  these  things  is  perhaps  the  most  difficult  un- 
dertaking in   these  chapters. 

Advantages  of  departments  in  missionary  work.  The 
advantages  of  putting  different  kinds  of  missionary  en- 
deavor under  the  direction  of  separate  agencies  have  to  do 
mainly  with  administration  and  definiteness.  As  to  the 
work  in  the  several  States,  the  Baptist  democratic  principle 
commits  them  to  having  it  under  the  direction  of  an 
agency  which  is  promptly,  easily  and  completely  respon- 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  37 

sible  to  the  local  body.  As  between  Home  and  Foreign 
Missions,  through  which  our  whole  Baptist  body  as  a  unit 
addresses  itself  respectively  to  supplying  the  needs  at  home 
and  abroad,  the  prevailing  idea  among  Baptists  has  been 
that  the  administrative  problems  in  the  two  fields  are  so 
different  that  they  will  be  best  conserved  by  committing 
each  activity  to  an  equal  but  separate  agency,  which  shall 
be  responsible  to  the  whole  body  through  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention.  I  have  spoken  of  the  danger  that  the 
zeal  of  speakers  for  one  of  two  or  more  causes  which  must 
appeal  to  the  same  people  usually  at  the  same  time,  shall 
give  the  impression  of  partisanship.  On  the  other  hand, 
this  is  an  incident  and  can  be  remedied,  while  the  loss  of 
definiteness  and  distinctness  of  appeal  would  be  a  serious 
loss,  very  difficult  to  remedy.  Among  our  ministers,  there 
have  only  rarely  been  authenticated  instances  of  such 
partisanship  in  speaking,  and  still  fewer  among  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Boards.  The  majority  of  our  people 
seldom,  and  many  of  them  never,  hear  a  direct  and  sus- 
tained appeal  for  any  field  of  missionary  endeavor.  There 
would  be  a  distinct  loss  if  what  they  and  their  leaders 
do  hear  should  have  to  gain  its  cosmopolitan  note  at 
the  expense  of  a  clear  cut  definiteness  of  appeal.  The 
merging  of  home  and  foreign  mission  activities  under  a 
single  agency  does  not  prevent  the  danger  above  con- 
sidered of  what  the  sensitive  may  consider  partisan  appeal. 
Before  me  is  the  report  of  a  great  Board  of  Home  and 
Foreign  Missions  of  another  Christian  body,  in  which  the 
appeal  of  the  responsible  head  of  the  Home  Mission  De- 
partment is  more  capable  of  being  designated  as  partisan 
than  anything  Southern  Baptists  have  heard  from  a  rep- 
resentative of  their  Home  Mission  Board. 


4^230 


38  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Dr.  Hatcher's  counsel.  Rev.  William  E.  Hatcher.  D.  D., 
writing  in  The  Home  Mission  Task,"  in  1912,  said:  "It 
seems  better  in  many  respects  that  the  work  should  be 
divided  and  carried  on  as  it  now  is,  but  we  need  men  who 
are  capable  of  the  utmost  justice,  righteousness  and  courtesy 
in  carrying  forward  the  several  departments  entrusted  to 
them.  There  can  be  no  place  for  jealousies  or  overriding 
ambitions  among  our  leaders.  From  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord 
every  department  must  take  its  orders."  This  principle 
allows  to  a  worker  the  utmost  zeal  for  the  particular  cause 
he  represents,  but  it  requires  of  him  that  he  shall  also 
understand  and  respect  the  needs  of  other  great  missionary 
activities,  and  be  careful  not  to  seem  to  desire  to  crowd 
another  cause  off  of  the  platform  by  making  his  fill  it  so 
full  that  others  shall  find  it  difficult  to  get  a  foothold.  But 
this  danger  has  to  do  rather  with  proposing  plans  for  Con- 
vention action  than  with  speeches  intended  to  thrill  the 
hearers  for  a  great  cause.  We  cannot  well  have  too  many 
compelling  speeches  for  missions  of  any  kind. 

Home  and  Foreign  Missions  complementary.  Whenever 
Christianity  has  failed  to  project  itself  into  other  lands,  it 
has  tended  to  lose  its  grip  on  its  own  country.  When- 
ever it  has  neglected  the  needs  of  people  at  its  doors, 
whose  nearness  and  faults  make  it  difficult  to  idealize  them, 
or  has  passed  on  to  paid  missionaries  all  the  sacrificial  prob- 
lems of  reaching  their  needy  souls,  God  has  not  allowed  it 
to  abide  in  strength.  Such  groups  have  tended  to  become 
select,  but  by  despising  the  needs  of  their  own  environment, 
they  have  always  lost  power  to  dominate  it  for  Christ. 
In  the  introduction  of  his  book,  "Missions  Striking  Home," 
Joseph  E.  McAfee  says:  "The  day  has  happily  passed 
when  a  church  can  save  its  missionary  face  before  a  needy 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  39 

world  by  an  ado  over  the  discovery  of  'so  much  to  do  at 
home.'  There  will  be  a  day,  please  God,  when  no  church 
can  derive  its  missionary  satisfaction  from  the  glamours  of 
a  distant  horizon.  The  Kingdom  will  come  some  day  the 
world  'round,  and  the  triumphant  homeliness  of  the  enter- 
prise will  be  the  church's  chief  glory." 

Mbsions  in  the  homeland  an  unselfish  undertaking.  The 
man  who  seeks  to  evade  the  Foreign  Mission  appeal  by  say- 
ing "there  is  so  much  to  do  at  home"  is  no  friend  to  Home 
Missions.  Sometimes  he  is  a  truly  good  man  untaught;  in 
the  vast  majority  of  cases  he  is  selfishly  seeking  to  dodge 
the  appeal  of  missions.  Such  persons  almost  never  sup- 
port mission  work  at  home  or  engage  themselves  in  per- 
sonal effort  to  win  lost  people,  which  is  at  the  very  heart  of 
missions.  People  who  talk  about  neglecting  other  lands 
because  there  is  so  much  to  do  at  home,  are  really  as  bad 
enemies  of  missions  at  home,  as  the  visionary  who  can  see 
nothing  this  side  of  the  Orient  which  is  really  a  "man's 
job"  in  missions.  Whatever  the  home  principle  is  in  mis- 
sions, it  is  as  unselfish  and  free  from  narrowness  as  are 
the  love  and  purposes  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  author  and  sub- 
stance of  all  missionary  effort.  Missions  is  not  narrow  be- 
cause it  may  find  its  task  at  our  own  doors.  Here  is  a 
church  in  a  thriving  city.  As  churches  go,  it  is  devoted 
to  missions.  The  pulpit  sounds  forth  the  world  appeal  and 
the  woman's  mission  society  is  especially  interested  in  the 
work  in  Persia,  let  us  say.  It  has  a  denominational  repu- 
tation for  its  world-vision.  A  visitor  to  this  church,  con- 
versing with  the  president  of  the  mission  society,  com- 
mented on  the  rapid  growth  of  her  town.  "Oh,  yes," 
responded  the  good  woman,  "large  numbers  of  people  are 
moving  into  the  town,  but,  you  know,  they  are  not  the 


40  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

sort  who  take  to  the  church."  Now  the  home  principle  in 
missions  does  not  ask  less  devotion  to  Persia,  or  to  China 
or  Japan  or  India.  It  believes  more  of  this  interest  is 
needed.  The  home  principle  in  mission  asks,  begs,  pleads 
that  we  shall  apply  the  same  spiritual  gauge  to  the  needy 
people  who  come  to  our  community  as  we  do  to  those  on 
foreign  shores.  It  is  because  the  heathen  does  not  take  to 
the  church  of  Christ  that  we  send  missionaries  to  teach  and 
change  him.  How  can  we  consistently  turn  this  around  at 
home  so  completely  that  we  make  the  indifference  of  people 
the  ground  for  neglecting  them?  Their  coming  to  America 
puts  us  under  new  obligations  to  them.  In  North  Carolina 
there  was  a  woman  from  Pennsylvania  who  was  going  over 
the  country  singing,  "Oh  Where  is  my  Wandering  Boy  To- 
night." A  brother  who  chanced  to  know  that  she  had  left 
a  family  of  ten  children  behind,  said  that  it  would  be  more 
appropriate  for  those  children  to  sing,  "Where  is  my  Wan- 
dering Mother  To-night."  We  are  not  fit  for  the  far  off 
duty  until  we  do  that  which  is  near. 

Saving  the  local  commiinity.  I  am  not  now  making  an 
argument  between  technical  Home  Missions  and  technical 
Foreign  Missions.  The  home  principle  in  missions  em- 
braces the  work  of  our  organized  agencies  for  missions  in 
our  own  land,  but  it  includes  more.  There  are  conditions 
under  which  the  most  pressing  missionary  obligation  of 
■a  church  will  be  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  one 
or  more  missions  in  its  own  community,  or  in  just  winning 
and  holding  its  community,  without  any  separate  organiza- 
tion. It  may  be  true  that  this  work  will  not  be  known  or 
credited  by  any  agency  as  a  missionary  contribution.  That 
makes  no  essential  difference,  desirable  as  it  is  for  a  church 
to  co-operate  with  all  the  agencies  of  the  denomination. 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  41 

The  home  principle  demands  that  we  shall  have  a  zeal  for 
the  lost  that  will  not  balk  at  the  unromantic,  unaesthetic 
and  often  annoying  mission  job  which  lies  ready  to  hand, 
nor  wait  to  consider  whether  it  gets  credit  for  its  service. 
I  am  connected  with  an  agency  which  expends  about  $500,- 
000  yearly  in  Home  Missions.  To  conduct  its  work  re- 
quires more  than  $40,000  every  month.  There  is  not  a 
month  in  which  every  official  worker  of  the  Home  Mission 
Board  is  not  burdened  with  trying  to  get  money  to  conduct 
such  large  operations.  But  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  trust 
the  support  of  our  organized  work,  in  the  States,  in  the 
South  and  in  foreign  lands,  with  churches  in  which  the 
principle  of  missions  strikes  in  with  such  sincerity  of  pur- 
pose, such  genuineness  of  love,  that  it  shall  yearn  with  holy 
passion  and  brotherly  care  for  the  needy  in  their  own  com- 
munities. In  fact,  can  we  with  confidence  trust  it  with 
churches  which  have  not  this  vision  of  the  value  of  the 
near-at-hand?  This  passion  in  a  city  church  will  not  allow 
it  to  forget  the  foreigner  within  three  blocks,  or  the  blacks 
in  the  Negro  quarter,  or  the  slums  in  the  back  streets,  or 
the  new  residence  district  in  the  suburbs,  or  the  nearly  dead 
country  churches  in  the  surrounding  country.  In  a  country 
church,  it  will  not  allow  that  body  to  vegetate  in  an  almost 
paralytic  inertia  for  eleven  months  and  three  weeks,  till  the 
protracted  meeting  work  comes,  to  suggest  that  it  really 
cares  for  the  folk  in  its  own  community.  How  we  need 
an  awakening  to  the  worth  of  the  at-our-doors  in  missions! 
When  we  show  our  confidence  in  the  value  of  the  gospel 
to  save  our  own  community,  and  not  until  then,  will  we  be 
in  position  to  demonstrate  our  full  sincerity  in  offering  it  to 
others.  To  be  indifferent  to  the  needy  people  in  our  town, 
while  we  offer  our  gospel  to  people  far  away,  is  to  suggest 


42  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

a  certain  lack  of  confidence  in  the  very  thing  we  propose 
to  send  to  others.  It  is  as  if  we  would  say,  This  is  good 
enough  for  you,  but  we  have  to  confess  it  did  not  more 
than  snatch  a  few  from  the  general  ruck  of  ungodliness  and 
pleasure-seeking  and  misery  which  oppresses  our  own  com- 
munity. 

It  calls  for  thoroughness.  The  home  principle  in  mis- 
sions calls  for  thoroughness.  To  their  cost  Southern  Bap- 
tists have  learned  this  in  some  of  their  foreign  mission  fields. 
For  a  long  time  our  missionaries  were  instructed  to  center 
all  their  efforts  on  evangelistic  proclamation.  God  blessed 
their  efforts.  The  reports  of  conversion  were  large  and 
refreshing.  Some  other  missionaries  in  the  same  territory 
gave  much  attention  to  thoroughness.  They  taught  the 
evangelized.  At  considerable  cost  they  established  and  con- 
ducted Christian  schools.  The  influence  and  stability  of 
their  work  increased.  Nurturing  is  slow  and  does  not  make 
a  report  look  big,  but  the  time  came  when  our  missionaries 
found  it  difficult  to  hold  what  they  had  evangelized.  They 
had  not  had  adequate  opportunity  to  teach  the  people  and 
their  leaders.  Our  Foreign  Mission  Board  saw  the  mistake, 
and  is  correcting  it  in  the  great  Judson  Memorial  Fund.  It 
was  a  natural  mistake  for  Southern  Baptists,  who  have 
always  been  great  at  pioneering,  but  have  not  been  so  active 
as  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  and  the  demands  of  the  field 
indicate  in  establishing  a  program  which  would  conserve 
as  well  as  project.  In  the  home  field  we  have  been  slow 
to  take  into  our  mission  program  the  work  of  watering  as 
well  as  planting.  Alas,  we  have  often  planted,  as  some 
farmers  are  learning  to  do  in  the  cut-over  pine  forests  in 
certain  sections  of  the  South.  They  dig  the  seeds  in  and 
leave  them.     In  the  fall  they  come  back  and  gather  a  bar- 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  43 

vest  from  such  of  the  crop  plants  as  may  have  been  able 
unaided  to  fight  a  winning  battle  with  grass  and  weeds 
and  roots  and  brush  and  briars.  A  full  acceptance  of  the 
home  principle  in  missions  will  not  only  seek  to  plant  all 
the  territory,  but  to  cultivate  every  bit  of  it,  looking  to  the 
abundant  harvest  that  shall  be  the  fruit  of  nurtured  lives, 
and  not  alone  to  the  meagre  returns  that  we  may  expect 
from  saved  souls  left  to  live  as  best  they  may  amid  the 
forces  of  ignorance  and  ungodlness. 

Calls  for  staying  on  the  task.  The  home  principle  in  mis- 
sions requires  that  we  shall  stick  to  the  job  and  adjust  our 
efforts  to  the  needs.  The  ministries  of  the  home  are  the 
ministries  of  love.  They  never  tire.  If  the  child  is  ill  no 
amount  of  weakness  or  fretfulness  changes  the  mother's 
patience  or  her  devoted  care.  The  principle  of  missions 
is  the  principle  of  love.  If  we  love,  we  will  not  become  dis- 
couraged when  our  infrequent  homilies  to  the  ignorant  and 
depraved  and  pleasure-seeking  seem  to  fall  on  deaf  ears. 
We  will  stick  by  the  job.  How  often  do  we  hear  some  one 
ask,  "When  will  you  ever  get  through  with  your  missions 
here  in  the  State?  or  in  the  South?  Must  we  expect  the 
appeal  to  keep  up  forever?"  Yes,  it  will  keep  up  so  long 
as  society  lasts  and  so  long  as  there  are  those  who  know 
Christ  and  care  for  the  sinful,  fallen  state  of  their  brothers. 
The  job  of  State  and  Home  Missions  has  to  be  done  over 
in  every  generation.  Each  generation  has  to  be  converted 
and  trained  for  service.  In  addition,  the  changes  in  popu- 
lation, which  were  never  so  many  as  now,  demand  in  each 
case  a  new  missionary  effort.  A  city  builds  a  new  suburb. 
People  move  out  to  it,  depleting  the  older  churches.  Behold 
two  mission  problems,  that  of  establishing  a  new  church  in 
the  suburb  and  that  of  aiding  the  old  ones  in  any  needed 


44  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

readjustments.  A  cotton  mill  is  erected.  People  are  brought 
in  as  operatives,  from  the  rural  districts  and  from  other 
States.  The  establishment  of  a  church  at  the  mill  is  a  mis- 
sion problem,  and  so  is  the  care  of  the  rural  churches  de- 
pleted by  the  going  of  these  and  others  to  urban  tasks. 
Civilization  speeds  up  its  material  elements.  Lagging 
churches,  especially  in  the  country,  stand  still.  The  time 
comes  when  the  poor  church  is  dazed  and  helpless  to  com- 
mand and  spiritualize  the  surrounding  life.  Helping  it  to 
diagnose  its  case  and  to  master  its  God-appointed  task,  and 
keeping  yet  other  churches  from  losing  their  grip,  is  essen- 
tially a  missionary  task.  An  old  population  moves  out,  an 
immigrant  crowd  comes  in.  Behold  two  mission  problems; 
one  among  Americans,  the  other  among  foreigners.  The 
successful  completion  of  one  task  opens  up  another.  A 
mission  church  subdues  a  bad  community;  land  values  in- 
crease; people  move  in.  Their  coming  brings  another  mis- 
sion problem.  If  we  evangelized  nobody,  we  would  not 
need  to  nurture  anybody.  The  home  principle  in  missions 
requires  that  we  shall  stay  on  the  task. 

Calls  for  courage  and  faith.  When  Spurgeon  considered 
the  inertia  and  discouragements  which  surround  a  lot  of 
small  churches  he  declared  that  he  did  not  have  faith 
enough  to  undertake  so  difficult  a  job,  and  thanked  God  for 
others  who  had.  It  requires  less  courage  and  ability  to  move 
from  place  to  place,  hunting  out  the  opportunities  sus- 
ceptible of  quick  cultivation,  and  then  jumping  to  another, 
than  it  does  to  stay  by  a  difficult  task,  year  after  year,  wit- 
nessing for  Christ,  and  turning  the  stagnation  of  long  stand- 
ing into  pure  currents  of  love  and  helpfulness.  Speaking  of 
devils  to  be  driven  from  communities,  I  commend  the  devil 
of  stagnation  to  doughty  champions,  who  really  wish  to  be 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  45 

pitted  against  a  man's  job  in  devil-driving.  Joseph  E. 
McAfee  tells  of  a  letter  he  received  from  a  young  preacher 
who  had  taken  charge  of  a  sleepy  church  in  a  community, 
generations  ago  congealed  into  forms  of  expression  not 
since  changed.  After  a  few  months  of  facing  a  static  church 
in  this  "finished"  conununity,  the  young  preacher  wrote: 
"I  cannot  stand  this;  the  devil  is  so  little  active  here  that 
my  ministry  is  not  even  entertaining."  Soon  the  young 
man  moved  out  to  a  raw  pioneer  community,  where  the 
devil  is  supposed  to  keep  things  on  the  jump  daily.  Was 
that  really  the  most  heroic  thing  to  do?  Perhaps  that  young 
preacher  was  so  little  acquainted  with  the  wiles  of  the  devil 
that  he  could  only  recognize  him  in  his  more  spectacular 
and  picturesque  manifestations.  In  respectable  circles  the 
devil  does  not  paint  himself  in  red  colors.  In  sober  old 
communities  he  puts  on  no  gaudy  garb  that  will  shock  the 
sensibilities  of  the  fastidious.  But  one  of  the  most  damag- 
ing devils  in  many  an  old  community  is  the  devil  of  stag- 
nation, of  asleep-in-Zion  contentment,  complacent  respect- 
ability, a  lack  of  courage  and  faith  to  take  hold  of  a  wan- 
ing church  life  and  lead  it  into  a  new  vitality. 

To  rebuild  as  well  as  build.  The  average  length  of 
tenure  of  a  Baptist  pastor  in  the  rural  South  is  less  than 
three  years.  Leaving  out  of  consideration  for  a  moment 
the  responsibility  of  the  churches  for  this  short-term  tenant 
system  of  pastoral  care,  consider  what  it  means  in  a  rest- 
less discontent  on  the  part  of  the  preachers  with  run-down- 
at-the-heels  conditions  which  so  often  obtain  in  rural  fields, 
and  indeed  elsewhere.  If  these  men  had  learned  in  their 
college  and  theological  training  and  from  the  ideals  held 
up  at  denominational  conventions  and  preachers'  meetings, 
that  he  who  rebuilds  is  as  great  as  he  who  first  clears  off 


46  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  brush,  how  much  it  would  mean  for  our  Baptist  useful- 
ness. It  requires  more  faith,  courage,  and  character  to 
tackle  the  job  of  reconstructing  and  vitalizing  the  life  of  a 
community  or  church,  the  pioneer  possibilities  of  which 
have  been  hastily  exploited  and  the  deeper  potentialities 
of  which  have  scarcely  been  touched,  than  it  does  to  clear 
the  new  ground  and  get  a  few  crops  from  the  virgin  spir- 
itual resources  before  soil-depletion  follows  soil-robbery  and 
the  devil  of  stagnation  supercedes  the  rough  imps  of  the 
unsubdued  wildwoods. 

Saving  as  well  as  prodaimiiig.  There  is  an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  work  of  missions  which  belittles  the  content  of 
the  message.  There  are  those  who  explain  Christ's  com- 
mand to  witness  for  him  in  all  places,  from  the  home  to  the 
uttermost  parts,  to  mean  that  we  must  merely  bear  the 
message  as  heralds.  As  John  the  Baptist  was  a  voice  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness,  announcing  the  coming  of  Christ, 
according  to  these  interpreters,  we  are  to  announce  to  the 
sin-blinded  world  that  Christ  has  come,  after  which  our 
responsibility  ceases.  Congregations  are  told  of  the  English 
officer's  assurance  that  the  queen's  forces  could  announce 
a  proclamation  from  the  English  throne  to  every  creature 
in  the  world,  in  two  or  three  years,  and  a  contrast  is  drawn 
with  the  tardy  performance  of  Christians  in  spreading  the 
proclamation  of  their  King.  "The  evangelization  of  the 
world  in  the  present  generation,"  is  a  slogan  which  has 
been  recently  much  used  to  challenge  missionary  enthusi- 
asm. As  an  extensive  program  this  slogan  is  impressive 
enough  to  grip  any  human  being  who  can  be  mastered  by 
the  appeal  of  the  great.  There  is  this,  however:  If 
this  program  has  for  its  content  only  the  heraldic  idea, 
it    is    fatally    deficient    in    its    intensive    purpose.      "Such 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  47 

persons,"  declares  Rev.  William  E.  Hatcher,  D.  D.,  in 
"The  Home  Mission  Task,"  "seem  to  have  a  cheap  and 
belittling  idea  of  what  the  evangelization  of  the  world 
really  means.  Everybody,  according  to  them,  must  have 
a  chance.  All  must  hear  the  joyful  sound  and  get  a  full 
and  solemn  warning,  and  if  they  do  not  fall  in  at  once 
with  the  gospel  offer,  the  day  of  grace  will  be  cut  short 
and  those  who  gave  the  warning  will  be  witnesses  for  the 
condemnation  of  the  rejecters.  Surely  our  Lord  never  came 
into  the  world  on  such  a  scant  errand  as  that.  He  came 
to  save  and  not  to  create  a  flimsy  pretext  for  condemning 
men.  So  far  as  we  know,  the  work  is  a  work  for  the  cen- 
turies. They  who  tell  us  how  long  it  will  take  to  get  the 
gospel  to  the  whole  world  know  not  what  they  are  talking 
about.  Our  part  is  to  hear  the  Commission  and  go  out 
under  the  order  and  stay  until  the  bells  of  heaven  ring  to 
call  us  off."  Nothing  less  than  that  will  comport  with  the 
spirit  of  love  and  service  which  is  at  the  heart  of  the  gospel. 
Not  one  of  us  was  ever  won  to  Christ  by  the  impatient 
scheme  of  the  heraldic  proclamationists.  It  took  love  and 
patience  and  more  love  and  patience,  line  upon  line,  pre- 
cept upon  precept.  And,  after  we  were  saved,  it  took  more 
still  of  these  to  nurture  us  in  the  requirements  of  the  life 
of  service.  New  Testament  practice  is  regularly  against 
the  heraldic  idea.  But,  if  there  were  no  examples  to  the 
contrary  and  no  specific  teaching,  the  spirit  of  faithfulness 
and  unwaning  love,  which  is  at  the  heart  of  Christianity 
would  bid  us  beware  of  a  scheme  of  evangelization  so 
heartless  and  cheap  as  the  heraldic  plan  proposes. 

The  base  of  supplies.  That  evangelizing  and  Christian- 
izing the  homeland  is  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
successful  foreign  mission  work,  we  have  often  been  re- 


48  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

minded.  None  has  more  keenly  felt  this  or  expressed  it 
with  more  trenchant  force  than  the  foreign  missionaries. 
For  money  and  additional  missionaries,  for  the  cheer  and 
reinforcement  of  sustaining  prayers  and  sympathy,  the  mis- 
sionary at  the  far-flung  front  is  dependent  upon  the  home- 
land. As  these  words  are  being  written,  this  country  has 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  its  young  men  in  the  army  camps, 
training  for  prospective  service  on  the  European  battle 
front.  Some  of  their  comrades  are  already  at  the  front. 
Others  will  go.  But,  however  many  may  go,  their  safety 
and  efficiency  at  the  front  will  depend  upon  maintaining  an 
adequate  base  of  supplies  at  home.  Germany,  impelled  by 
a  fateful  greed  of  godless  conquest,  has  turned  its  whole 
territory  into  a  great  machine  for  manufacturing  war  sup- 
plies. America,  which  hates  war  and  loves  peace,  in  order 
to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy,  is  mobilizing  the 
resources  of  the  entire  country.  If  America  must  strike, 
she  will  not  only  look  after  the  hammer,  but  provide  an 
arm  that  shall  be  able  to  use  it  with  untiring  strength.  She 
will  at  home  provide  the  dynamo  with  current  adequate  to 
drive  the  motor  at  its  full  capacity  in  France.  If  the  Chris- 
tian people  of  America  would  mobilize  for  Christ  the  un- 
enlisted  and  the  enlisted  but  untaught  human  forces  of  this 
country  with  one-fifth  the  determination  our  people  are 
exhibiting  in  getting  ready  for  the  war,  a  great  and  blessed 
increment  of  power  would  come  to  our  Foreign  Mission 
effort. 

Idealizing  the  daily  task.  The  call  of  a  great  task  chal- 
lenges men  and  the  appeal  of  romance  draws  them.  This 
appeal  is  often  used  to  woo  Christians  to  the  immense  tasks 
of  Foreign  Missions.  The  exponent  of  the  need  of  a  vital 
mission  program  at  home  may  not  use  these  appeals  with 


THE  HOME  PRINCIPLE  IN  MISSIONS  49 

similar  effectiveness,  though  our  task  is  both  urgent  and 
immense.  But  he  may  insist  that  our  work  at  home  tre- 
mendously needs  that  we  shall  learn  how  to  idealize  the 
commonplace,  and  that  the  welfare  of  our  foreign  propa- 
ganda also  demands  this.  I  would  not  take  from  the  urge 
of  the  great  or  of  the  novel  any  of  its  power,  but  I  would 
that  we  might  add  to  the  content  and  character  of  the 
message  wherewith  we  propose  to  permeate  the  masses  of 
unsaved,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Our  Saviour  said, 
"Well,  thou  good  servant,  because  thou  hast  been  faithful 
in  very  little,  have  thou  authority  over  ten  cities."  "He 
that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least  is  faithful  also  in 
much."  Never  has  the  world  had  another  teacher  who 
showed  men  how  to  glorify  and  idealize  the  commonplace 
and  despised  things  of  daily  life,  like  Jesus  did.  A  great 
teacher  has  said  that  "the  drearier  and  more  commonplace 
the  occupation,  the  higher  must  be  the  ideal  of  the  man  or 
woman  whose  lot  it  is."  Thank  God  for  that  spirit  which 
can  make  a  woman  washing  dishes  or  a  man  digging  a  ditch 
clothe  the  task  with  such  dreams  and  satisfactions  as  to 
enable  them  through  the  task  to  see  God  and  to  serve  and 
love  their  fellows.  No  preachment  of  the  challenge  of 
the  great  task  which  does  not  make  room  for  the  magni- 
fication of  even  the  cup  of  cold  water  in  His  name,  is  of 
the  kind  that  our  missionary  effort  needs.  The  spirit  of 
such  preachment  lacks  a  world  of  being  sufficient  to  sus- 
tain in  the  tedious  tasks  of  weary  days  and  years  the  men 
and  women  who  actually  execute  this  mission  service.  We 
can  objectify  and  idealize  their  task  as  a  regal  invasion. 
But  they  cannot  objectify  it;  they  can  only  show  forth,  in 
thousands  of  little  efforts,  a  heart  of  love  which  can  labor 
and  wait.     The  foreign  missionary  idealizes  the  common- 


50  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

place.  So  does  the  homeland  missionary.  So  must  we  en- 
deavor to  teach  our  church  members  to  do.  For  it  is  not 
by  the  might  of  our  statesmanship  and  strategy,  nor  by  the 
power  of  mere  mathematical  immensity  to  subdue  the  mind, 
but  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  begets  in  us  that  faith  which, 
day  by  day  and  in  that  which  is  least,  worketh  by  love, 
that  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  shall  come. 

Makmsf  democracy  safe  for  the  world.  In  a  great  ad- 
dress Dr.  John  E.  White,  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
of  Anderson,  South  Carolina,  recently  sounded  a  chal- 
lenge which  has  the  flavor  of  prophecy.  After  pleading 
that  we  might  through  the  terrible  World  War  make  the 
world  safe  for  democracy,  he  declared  that  when  by  the 
blessing  of  God  a  righteous  peace  shall  come,  bringing 
safety  for  democracy,  we  shall  still  have  the  democrats 
on  our  hands.  Safe  from  international  strife,  we  shall 
still  have  the  internal  strife  of  classes — strikes,  greedy  ag- 
gressions, self-indulgence,  class-wars.  When  Patrick  Henry 
said,  "Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death,"  he  held  up  the 
ideal  of  personal  liberty.  When  Lincoln  said,  "A  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people,"  he  set 
forth  the  platform  of  national  democracy.  When  Woodrow 
Wilson  said,  "We  must  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy," 
he  raised  before  mankind  the  banner  of  international  de- 
mocracy. When  the  suffering  and  war  are  over  which 
afflict  the  world,  what  of  the  democrats  we  shall  have  on 
our  hands?  The  answer  is  a  question  of  whether  we  shall 
bring  American  men  and  all  zones  of  American  life  into 
subjection  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Only  thus  can  we 
make  democracy  safe  for  the  world.  It  is  a  work  of  mis- 
sions in  our  own  homes  and  in  our  own  land.  It  challenges 
all  manhood,  and  demands  all  the  devotion  of  the  heart. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  II. 

1.  Unity  of  principle  in  all  classes  of  mission  work,  in  connec- 
tion with  divisions  for  administrative  eflSciency. 

2.  The  impossibility  of  selfishness  in  any  real  missionary  effort. 

3.  The  suitability  of  homeland  missions  to  test  one's  (1)  thor- 
oughness, (2)  willingness  to  stay  on  the  task,  (3)  courage 
and  faith. 

4.  Show  how  homeland  missions  requires  us  (1)  to  rebuild  as 
well  as  build,  (2)  to  save  as  well  as  proclaim,  (3)  to  con- 
serve the  base  of  supplies,  (4)  to  idealize  the  daily  task. 


CHAPTER  III. 
AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO. 

The  Negro  is  our  heritage.  No  race  ever  had  more  pas- 
sion for  liberty  than  the  Anglo-Saxon.  In  America  the  love 
for  freedom  of  this  race  found  its  fullest  expression,  and  in 
the  South  their  blood  has  remained  freest  from  mixture  with 
other  strains.  Here  the  Anglo-Saxon's  devotion  to  evan- 
gelical religion  has  been  less  interfered  with  than  in  other 
sections.  This  faith  has  sensed  the  worth  of  the  individual 
and  the  rights  of  personality  more  than  all  others  and  has 
thus  added  to  the  spirit  of  democracy.  It  was  a  paradox 
and  a  tragedy  that  such  a  people  should  find  themselves 
possessed  with  a  social  order  which  had  gradually  built 
human  bondage  into  its  fabric.  Nowhere  else  had  slavery 
ever  existed  under  such  humane  conditions.  Many  slave 
owners  looked  after  the  welfare  of  their  servants  with  sin- 
cere desire  for  their  well  being  and  happiness.  Some  ar- 
ranged plans  for  giving  freedom  to  their  servants.  Thou- 
sands porvided  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  blacks, 
who  often  sat  in  the  same  churches  with  the  white  owners. 
The  genuine  affection  which  often  existed  between  master 
and  man  was  creditable  alike  to  both.  But  slavery  was 
doomed  in  America,  as  the  spread  of  democracy  and  right- 
eousness will  doom  it  anywhere.  The  spirit  of  our  religion 
and  of  the  age  was  against  it.  A  halo  of  romance  en- 
velops the  story  of  the  feudal  life  of  the  Old  South,  and 
there  was  a  unique  beauty  about  that  life.  But  the 
beauty  was   in   generous  hearts;    in   the  institution   itself 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      53 

there  was  only  ugliness.  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  written  by 
a  gifted  Northern  woman  as  an  anti-slavery  document, 
gave  an  ex  parte  portrayal  which  did  not  fairly  set  forth 
the  truth  about  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  and  the  South 
resented  it.  But,  aside  from  the  badness  of  slavery  as  an 
institution,  even  under  the  best  conditions,  not  all  slave 
owners  were  humane  or  kind,  nor  can  we  of  the  twentieth 
century  without  regret  consider  the  fact  that  our  fathers 
had  laws  in  most  of  the  Southern  States  against  teaching 
slaves  to  read  and  write.  Surely  the  South  was  consciously 
enmeshed  in  a  bad  system,  when  in  order  to  safeguard  it, 
it  felt  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  slaves  ignorant  to  keep 
them  docile.  For  his  own  welfare,  quite  as  much  as  for 
that  of  the  blacks,  the  Southern  white  man  of  to-day  thanks 
God  that  the  nightmare  of  human  slavery  was  removed. 
A  portentious  but  hopeful  problem.  The  War  between 
the  States  did  not  settle  the  race  problem.  It  merely  brought 
it  into  a  new  phase.  The  problem  is  a  permanent  posses- 
sion of  the  South,  and  is  the  most  difficult  internal  question 
which  affects  the  life  of  this  section.  It  is  a  question  of 
two  separate  races,  one  advanced  and  the  other  not  long 
from  barbarism  and  only  recently  from  slavery,  living  per- 
manently in  the  same  environment  under  conditions  that 
shall  provide  for  the  welfare  and  progress  of  both  races. 
It  is  a  question  of  the  strong  considering  the  needs  of  the 
weak,  and  the  weak  advancing  to  strength  without  seeking 
to  use  his  increasing  advantages  to  the  injury  of  those  who 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  rise.  Fundamentally  it  is  a 
question  of  Christian  faith  and  of  doing  right  because  it 
is  right.  Dark  as  the  problem  is  from  the  standpoint  of 
politics,  social  fact,  and  human  nature,  it  becomes  bright 
when  approached  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.     The  Negro 


54  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

is  religious  and  he  heartily  and  sincerely  welcomes  the 
counsel  and  friendship  of  the  white  man  on  the  plane  of 
a  common  faith  in  God.  It  is  a  fact,  and  we  shall  do  well 
to  impress  ourselves  with  it,  that  the  Negro  is  the  supreme 
test  of  the  Southern  white  man's  Christianity.  And  it  is 
not  difficult  for  a  really  Christian  white  man  to  show  the 
spirit  of  fair-dealing  with  Negroes.  Thousands  of  whites 
affect  to  reprobate  the  blacks  as  a  race,  who  are  sincerely 
attached  to  individual  Negroes.  Many  speak  more  crit- 
ically of  Negroes  than  they  feel.  The  recent  exodus  of 
Negroes  to  the  North  has  convinced  many  a  Southern  white 
man  that  he  was  unconsciously  posing  when  he  said  he 
wanted  the  Negroes  to  leave.  Most  of  us  really  want  the 
Negro  to  stay  in  the  South.  He  understands  us  and  we 
understand  him.  We  would  not  know  how  to  get  along 
without  him. 

The  football  of  circumstances.  There  are  good  reasons 
for  the  whites  to  feel  kindly  toward  the  Negroes.  The  race 
has  certain  weaknesses.  They  are  the  weaknesses  of  a  child- 
race,  such  as  lack  of  restraint,  lack  of  honesty,  a  love  of 
show  and  parade,  and  lack  of  initiative.  But  this  race  has 
certain  qualities  which  have  won  their  way  to  the  heart 
of  the  white  man.  Among  them  are  fidelity,  gratitude  for 
favors,  generosity,  lack  of  brooding,  unresentfulness,  a 
patient  good  humor,  and  a  soul  which  responds  to  the  ap- 
peal of  religion  and  interprets  itself  winsomely  in  plaintive 
music.  If  space  permitted,  the  evidence  of  these  virtues 
claimed  for  the  Negro  could  be  given.  For  the  most  part, 
the  Southern  white  man  will  not  ask  for  evidence.  He  has 
throughout  his  life  observed  for  himself  the  characteristics 
of  the  blacks  in  the  Negroes  about  him.  But  we  have 
usually  been  readier  to  speak  of  the  Negro's  faults  than 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      55 

his  virtues.  It  is  almost  to  weep  to  consider  how  often  the 
Negro  has  been  the  foot-ball  of  frowning  circumstances 
for  which  he  was  in  no  way  responsible.  He  was  not  re- 
sponsible for  being  in  America.  He  was  not  responsible 
for  the  war.  He  was  not  responsible  for  the  unwisdom  of 
putting  the  ballot  into  his  hands  before  he  knew  what  to 
do  with  it.  The  cupidity,  the  quarrels  and  conflicts  of  the 
stronger  whites,  raged  about  him  and  he  stumbled  and  suf- 
fered, not  knowing  clearly  what  it  was  all  about.  But, 
feeling  that  somehow  there  was  not  much  to  be  had  by 
the  Negro  in  this  strange  white  man's  world,  he  smiled  and 
unburdened  his  soul  in  a  song: 

"Aught's  a'  aught  and  five's  a  figur', 
All  for  de  white  man  and  none  for  de  nigger." 

Set  down  into  the  civilization  of  a  superior  race,  it  has 
not  been  a  fault  of  the  Negro  that  he  should  long  to  secure 
for  himself  some  of  the  advantages  of  that  higher  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  the  only  civilization  he  knows.  If  he  was  im- 
pervious to  its  appeal,  he  would  be  either  more  or  less  than 
human.  It  is  to  his  credit  that  he  does  struggle  toward 
improving  his  condition  in  the  line  of  the  higher  standards 
which  are  ever  before  him. 

His  virtues  have  saved  him.  The  Indian  as  a  race  did 
not  fit  into  the  white  man's  civilization  as  a  free  man,  and 
could  not  have  done  so  as  a  slave.  The  Negro  thrived  in 
bondage,  and  was  loyal  to  the  trust  of  helpless  white  women 
when  his  master  was  fighting  to  keep  him  a  slave.  Set  free, 
at  first  he  was  happy  but  dazed.  When  he  had  rubbed 
his  eyes,  he  began  to  see  that  freedom  meant  work  and  self- 
direction,  and  he  successfully  fitted  himself  into  a  place  in 
the  white  man's  civilization  under  the  new  conditions.   Had 


56  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

he  been  bitter  and  morose,  like  the  Indian,  he  would  have 
caused  endless  trouble,  and  brought  on  himself  his  own 
destruction.  But  hate  was  not  in  his  heart.  Given  the 
ballot,  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  it,  so  he  played 
with  it  as  a  child  would  do,  while  the  carpet-bagger  fat- 
tened and  the  white  man  successfully  set  about  bringing  an 
end  to  this  political  orgie.  The  Negro  has  suffered  much 
for  that  premature  frolic  with  the  ballot,  but  he  was  a 
victim  rather  than  an  aggressor  and  the  Southern  whites 
understood  the  case  and  did  not  hold  against  the  Negro 
his  Falstaffian  venture  into  politics.  The  yearning  of  this 
childlike  race  for  the  white  man's  learning  would  have 
been  amusing,  it  it  had  not  been  pathetic.  Debarred  from 
books  in  slavery,  the  Negro  felt  that  in  book-learning  some- 
how lay  the  secret  of  the  white  man's  power.  So  there  was 
a  struggle  to  learn  out  of  books, — any  kind  of  book,  but 
especially  that  wonder-working  Latin  and  Greek  that  the 
master's  son  had  been  learning  at  the  big  university.  Still, 
the  poor  untaught  black  was  not  entirely  without  ability 
to  discriminate,  as  we  shall  see. 

Religious  efforts  of  the  whites.  No  study  of  the  race 
question  in  the  South  can  proceed  well  without  taking  note 
of  the  fact  that  the  Christian  white  people  have  always 
felt  an  obligation  to  evangelize  the  Negroes.  This  was  true 
under  the  slave  regime  and  it  is  true  now.  The  significance 
of  this  fact  is  that  the  white  man  never  hardened  his  heart 
against  his  bond  servant,  and  that  the  slave's  heart  was 
open  to  sympathetic  approach  of  the  white  man.  Similarly 
the  post-bellum  efforts  to  lead  the  Negroes  to  become  Chris- 
tians, which  have  been  general  among  Southern  Christian 
bodies,  and  far  more  general  among  individual  white  men 
and  women,  are  the  best  possible  proof  that  there  is  no 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      57 

gulf  of  race  prejudice  across  which  kindly  human  sympathy 
cannot  and  does  not  pass  daily.  Each  of  the  Christian 
bodies  conducted  missionary  effort  for  the  slaves.  White 
missionaries  went  to  them;  white  churches  received  them 
as  members;  in  a  number  of  instances  capable  Negro 
preachers  were  given  their  liberty,  so  that  they  might  give 
their  lives  to  the  ministry.  After  the  war,  the  work  for  the 
blacks  was  resumed,  though  the  white  churches  were  pov- 
erty stricken.  The  blacks  went  to  separate  churches  on 
their  own  motion  and  the  whites  gave  the  land  and  con- 
tributed freely  toward  erecting  the  houses  of  worship. 
Southern  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  Presbyterians  until  to- 
day are  engaged  in  missionary  endeavor  for  the  blacks. 
The  Episcopalians,  who  did  not  separate  into  Northern 
and  Southern  denominational  wings,  are  also  doing  some- 
thing for  them.  Most  of  the  rural  religious  membership  in 
the  South  is  Methodist  and  Baptist.  Partly  for  this  reason, 
nearly  all  the  Negroes  belong  to  one  of  these  two  denomina- 
tions, the  Baptists  having  more  than  three-fifths  of  the 
entire  religious  membership  of  the  Negroes  in  America. 

Near  the  heart  of  the  problem.  In  his  book,  "Up  From 
Slavery,"  Booker  T.  Washington  says  that  he  was  con- 
scious, when  he  stood  before  that  distinguished  gathering 
at  the  Atlanta  Exposition,  in  1885,  in  which  he  made  his 
national  reputation,  that  he  could  through  one  foolish  sen- 
tence set  back  for  many  years  the  coming  of  a  kinder  and 
more  helpful  understanding  between  the  whites  and  blacks. 
Seeking  as  I  am  in  this  chapter  to  approach  the  heart  of 
our  race  problem,  I  feel  a  solicitude  somewhat  akin  to  the 
oppression  which  bore  down  on  that  black  man's  anxious 
soul,  as  he  sought  to  say  a  hopeful  interpretative  word 
on  the  race  problem  that  both  races  would  receive.     If 


58  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

one  dares  go  to  the  heart  of  this  question,  he  is  aware 
that  he  will  have  to  do  with  the  political  status  of  the 
black,  his  economic  position,  his  education,  his  religious 
welfare,  and  fair  dealing  with  him  as  an  individual.  The 
responsible  white  South  accepts  its  religious  obligation  to 
the  Negro,  and  has  done  much  to  help  him,  though  not  all 
it  ought,  by  far.  It  accepts  the  principle  of  fair  and  honest 
business  dealings  with  the  black  man,  but  is  painfully  aware 
that  there  are  not  a  few  whites  who  are  not  living  up  to  a 
high  standard  of  honesty  in  their  dealings  with  Negroes. 
Its  attitude  toward  the  Negro's  economic  independence  is 
that  of  encouragement,  and  is  one  of  the  most  cheering 
phases  of  this  problem.  By  giving  about  $10,000,000 
yearly  to  Negro  education  in  the  public  schools  and  by 
refusing  to  adopt  laws  proposed  for  the  purpose  of  cutting 
the  Negro  out  of  this  aid,  the  South  has  demonstrated  that 
it  feels  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  increase  the  Negro's  in- 
telligence. Yet  it  is  some  phases  of  the  educational  ques- 
tion, and  his  political  status,  which  it  is  most  difficult  to 
discuss  in  a  hopeful  and  satisfactory  way. 

As  to  "social  equality."  As  to  "social  equality,"  though 
it  is  a  theme  about  which  it  is  easy  to  generate  much  heat, 
it  has  never  seemed  to  me  to  merit  serious  attention.  Gov- 
ernor W.  J.  Northen,  of  Georgia,  was  right  when  he  said 
that  "Social  equality  is  a  delusion  set  up  by  the  dema- 
gogue." There  is  no  question  of  social  intermingling  of 
races  in  the  South.  Assuredly  there  is  none  which  need 
disturb  us  in  any  program  which  we  may  adopt  for  the 
uplift  of  the  Negro.  The  only  danger  point  is  between  the 
baser  sort  of  whites  and  the  baser  sort  of  Negroes.  Constant 
efforts  to  improve  the  Negro  and  to  bring  the  whites  to  a 
fuller,  better  life  are  exactly  those  the  fruition  of  which 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      59 

will  destroy  even  any  semblance  of  social  intermingling. 
This  is  a  paradox,  but  it  is  the  truth.  The  Negro  has  a 
disconcerting  way  of  developing  under  given  conditions 
into  attitudes  exactly  opposite  to  those  we  predicted.  We 
said  if  he  came  to  own  his  farm  he  would  get  independent 
of  his  white  neighbors  and  be  troublesome.  But  when  he 
came  to  own  his  farm,  he  became  a  good  citizen  and  allied 
himself  with  his  white  neighbors  to  help  control  the  dis- 
orderly elements  of  his  own  race.  Some  of  us  have  been 
saying  if  we  educated  the  Negro  and  aided  him  to  a  larger 
comprehension  of  life,  he  would  seek  to  thrust  himself  in 
an  obnoxious  way  on  whites.  Well,  we  have  educated  some 
of  them.  With  what  results?  The  educated  Negro,  through 
learning  self-respect,  has  usually  become  painfully  and 
supersensitively  careful  not  to  impose  himself  on  whites  in 
a  way  that  might  suggest  social  aspirations  or  invite  rebuff. 
As  a  Negro  preacher  in  Texas  has  said,  the  baser  elements 
of  the  two  races  are  as  the  junction  point  of  two  sides  of 
a  triangle,  while  the  better  elements  of  the  Negroes  to-day 
are  so  far  from  contact  with  the  whites  that  the  responsible 
groups  of  the  two  races  may  be  considered  as  the  other 
ends  of  the  two  lines  forming  the  triangle.  They  are  not 
only  more  separated,  but  too  much  separated  from  the 
responsible  whites.  When  in  his  famous  Atlanta  speech 
Booker  Washington  said:  "In  all  things  purely  social  we 
can  be  as  separate  as  the  fingers,  yet  one  as  the  hand  in 
all  things  essential  to  mutual  progress,"  the  whole  great 
audience  of  distinguished  Southern  whites  and  some  Ne- 
groes rose  to  its  feet  and  indulged  in  a  delirium  of  applause. 
Mr.  Clark  Howell,  editor  of  the  Atlanta  Constitution,  in 
the  audience,  turned  and  remarked  to  Mr.  James  Creelman, 
then  staff  correspondent  of  the  New  York  World:     "That 


60  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

man's  speech  is  the  beginning  of  a  moral  revolution."  In 
"The  Constitution,"  Mr.  Howell  said:  "The  whole  speech 
is  a  platform  on  which  blacks  and  whites  can  stand  with 
full  justice  to  each  other."  If  there  is  any  real  danger  in 
social  intermixing  of  the  races,  it  is  among  the  ignorant 
and  the  low.  The  way  to  cure  it  is  by  driving  out  ignor- 
ance and  sin,  not  by  negations  and  silly  fears,  which  do 
small  credit  to  our  conscious  Anglo-Saxon  strength.  Our 
faith  in  God  and  in  our  own  strength,  and  the  chivalry 
which  leads  a  true  man  to  encourage  the  weak  and  needy, 
demand  that  we  shall  lay  the  ghost  of  such  fears  concern- 
ing the  social  safety  of  the  white  race. 

Three  leading  di£Giciilties.  Before  tracing  further  some 
of  the  stumbling  blocks  which  beset  the  way  of  help  and 
confidence  between  the  races,  I  wish  to  mention  three  lead- 
ing difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  dispassionate  and  construc- 
tive approach  to  this  matter  of  black  and  white  in  the  South. 
They  are  the  prejudiced  Southern  white  man,  the  Northern 
Negrophile,  and  the  radical  Negro  leader,  who  is  usually 
a  New  England  product.  Dr.  W.  D.  Weatherford,  in 
"Negro  Life  in  the  South,"  tells  of  a  white  physician  he 
met  who  in  one  breath  declared  hell  was  too  good  for  the 
Negro  criminal,  and  in  the  next  breath  claimed  that  the 
Negro  had  no  soul.  When  Dr.  Weatherford  asked  him  if 
he  thought  his  horse  would  go  to  hell  because  in  a  fit  of 
temper  he  kicked  his  master,  the  physician  did  not  seem  to 
see  the  point.  The  political  demagogue  who  raves  about 
"white  supremacy"  and  "social  equality,"  does  it  in  the 
thought  that  the  white  voter  whose  suffrage  he  seeks,  is 
ignorant  and  prejudiced  enough  to  be  caught  by  such 
furious  speech.  If  the  voters  would  only  think,  such  a 
demagogue  is  in  effect  telling  them  that  they  are  narrow 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      61 

and  ignorant  and  that  therefore  he  has  decided  to  ensnare 
their  votes  by  shouting,  "The  goblins  will  get  you!"  Few 
more  mortifying  spectacles  have  disgraced  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  South  than  the  Negro-baiting  of  these  agitators. 
It  is  gratifying  to  note  that  there  are  fewer  of  them  than 
formerly,  and  that  very  few  of  their  rash  proposals  have 
been  adopted. 

The  Northern  Negrophile  and  the  radical  Negro.  These 
two  hinderers  of  the  improvement  of  race  relations  in  the 
South  belong  in  the  same  pigeon  hole.  The  radical  Negro 
leader  is  almost  without  exception  a  New  England  product. 
Boston  has  done  many  good  things  in  America  and  has  not 
suffered  for  lack  of  an  adequate  book-making  ability  where- 
with to  set  it  forth  before  the  world  on  the  printed  page. 
But  Boston's  intolerant  and  contemptuous  attitude  toward 
the  Southern  whites  in  relation  to  the  great  human  prob- 
lem which  has  fallen  to  the  South  to  settle,  has  been  a 
source  of  almost  continual  exasperation  in  this  section,  and 
has  undoubtedly  retarded  the  approach  of  the  two  races  in 
a  better  understanding.  If  the  South  has  to  confess  to  race 
prejudice,  it  can  at  least  show  a  great  occasion  for  it,  one 
concerning  the  solution  of  which  the  world  afforded  no 
precedent.  But  those  complacent  uplifters  of  Boston  had 
no  similar  excuse  for  their  arrogant  attitude  of  condemna- 
tion toward  a  whole  section  of  the  country.  This  section 
realizes  that  the  Negro  question  is  national,  just  as  the 
foreigner  question  is,  which  is  now  pinching  Boston  and 
New  England  so  severely.  But  in  a  peculiar  sense  the 
Negro  question  is  Southern  and  must  be  wrought  out  in 
the  South.  This  section  has  felt  that  it  deserved  at  least 
the  patient  sympathy  of  other  sections.  More  and  more 
that  sympathy  and  patience  are  coming  to  be  given,  and  we 


62  THE  CALL  OP  THE  SOUTH 

shall  welcome  even  Boston  uplifters  to  a  more  pacific  and 
tolerant  frame  of  mind.  But,  in  the  meantime,  they  have 
nurtured  the  radical  Negro  leader,  who  from  his  New  Eng- 
land aerie  pronounces  great  swelling  words  about  the  rights 
of  his  race  in  the  South,  not  one  of  whose  actual  burdens 
this  impertinent  ranter  has  usually  ever  sought  to  relieve  by 
the  weight  of  his  little  finger.  I  have  just  read  "The  Souls 
of  Black  Folk,"  by  Prof.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  a  teacher  in  a 
Negro  institution  at  Atlanta,  but  a  New  England  product 
He  is  a  gifted  man,  but  shows  bitterness  of  spirit  In  his 
writings  he  does  not  seem  to  be  concerned  to  help  the 
Negroes  to  be  worthy  of  position,  but  rather  to  stir  them 
to  demand  for  themselves  their  so-called  rights,  by  which 
he  means  all  that  is  desirable  in  the  white  man's  civiliza- 
tion. To  quote  some  of  the  utterances  of  this  Negro  man 
and  others  of  his  kind  would  only  be  to  stir  up  the  op- 
position of  Southern  whites  who  are  really  friendly  to 
Negro  progress.  Those  Boston  Negroes  tried  to  discredit 
Professor  Booker  Washington  because  his  plan  was  to  take 
the  Negro  as  he  is  and  to  make  him  a  more  useful  man  by 
teaching  him  first  to  be  a  better  farmer  and  artisan.  This 
program  of  doing  first  things  first,  which  is  essentially  that 
which  every  race  has  had  to  follow,  was  not  full  enough 
of  bombast  and  windy  camouflage  to  suit  those  Negroes 
of  Boston. 

Negro's  political  situation.  Harm  was  done  the  interests 
of  the  Negro  by  giving  him  the  ballot  after  the  Civil  War. 
Nothing  less  than  the  blindness  of  prejudice  can  account 
for  the  putting  of  the  political  and  civil  control  of  the  South 
in  the  hands  of  ignorant  ex-slaves  and  of  taking  the  fran- 
chise away  from  many  of  the  whites,  who,  any  common 
sense  consideration  would  have  shown,  must  lead  in  bring- 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      63 

ing  order  out  of  chaos,  if  it  was  ever  to  be  done.  That  blun- 
der and  the  abnormal  methods  which  the  Southern  States 
had  to  use  to  overthrow  it  left  the  South  in  no  mood  to  con- 
sider the  poHtical  rights  of  the  Negro.  But  some  of  the 
most  conscientious  and  thoughtful  leaders  of  this  section 
are  now  raising  the  question  of  the  terms  on  which  the  bal- 
lot shall  be  accorded.  Undoubtedly  there  should  be  restric- 
tions about  the  right  to  vote,  but  is  it  ethical  or  safe  to 
make  different  restrictions  for  the  different  races?  A 
literacy  test  is  perhaps  the  best  practicable  safeguard  against 
ignorance  in  the  votes.  A  property  requirement  might  not 
be  bad.  But  can  the  dominant  whites  afford  not  to  apply 
these  tests  with  fairness  to  both  races?  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington says  on  this  point:  "I  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
Negro  to  deport  himself  modestly  in  regard  to  political 
claims,  depending  upon  the  slow  but  sure  influences  that 
proceed  from  the  possession  of  property,  intelligence,  and 
high  character  for  the  full  recognition  of  his  political  rights. 
I  think  that  the  according  of  the  full  exercise  of  political 
rights  is  going  to  be  a  matter  of  natural,  slow  growth,  not 
an  over-night,  gourd-vine  affair.  *  *  *  As  a  rule,  I  be- 
lieve in  universal,  free  suffrage,  but  I  believe  that  in  the 
South  we  are  confronted  with  peculiar  conditions  that 
justify  the  protection  of  the  ballot  in  many  States,  for  a 
while  at  least,  by  an  educational  test,  a  property  test,  or 
by  both  combined;  but  whatever  tests  are  required,  they 
should  be  made  to  apply  with  equal  and  exact  justice  to 
both  races."  If  the  bars  are  put  up  higher  between  the 
Negro  and  the  franchise  than  between  the  white  and  the 
franchise,  it  will  stimulate  the  Negro  to  develop  strength  to 
climb  the  higher  over  the  restrictions,  while  it  will  lull  the 
whites  into  an  unwholesome  and  weakening  complacency. 


64  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

This  appears  to  be  poor  statesmanship,  as  well  as  bad 
ethics.  It  is  not  calculated  to  confirm  our  confidence  in 
Anglo-Saxon  superiority. 

Economic  progress.  The  freed  Negro  dreamed  happily 
of  a  life  without  work.  After  fifty  years,  there  is  a  definite 
and  conscious  reversal  of  ideals  among  the  best  thought  of 
the  race.  It  is  even  claimed  by  some  observers  that  the 
ideal  of  economic  independence  is  mastering  that  of  educa- 
tion among  many  Negroes  as  a  directing  force  in  their  lives. 
At  any  rate,  the  economic  progress  is  marked  which  is  now 
being  made  by  the  Negroes  in  the  South.  And  it  is  es- 
pecially gratifying  that  here  is  an  upward  movement  among 
the  Negroes  concerning  which  there  is  general  good  will, 
and  often  assistance  on  the  part  of  their  white  neighbors. 
A  questionaire,  sent  out  by  Dr.  W.  D.  Weatherford  among 
200  farm  demonstrators  in  the  South,  brought  replies  nearly 
all  of  which  declared  that  the  whites  are  friendly  to  Negro 
farm  ownership.  This  is  also  confirmed  by  general  obser- 
vation. There  is  no  economic  discrimination  against  the 
Negro  in  the  South.  Here  white  men  not  only  give  him  a 
chance  to  work  and  encourage  him  to  work,  but  when  oc- 
casion arises,  they  work  at  his  side.  This  affords  a  hope- 
ful outlook.  The  value  of  Negro  farm  property  in  the 
South  increased  from  $177,000,000  to  $493,000,000.  or 
177  per  cent.between  1900  and  1916.  About  thirty  per- 
cent of  all  the  Negro  farmers  in  the  South  now  own  their 
farms,  and  the  number  of  owners  is  definitely  increasing. 
There  are  in  the  United  States  forty-eight  Negro  banks, 
which  do  an  annual  business  of  more  than  $26,000,000. 
The  Negro  Year  Book  estimates  the  Negro  wealth  in  the 
United  States  at  $1,000,000,000.  They  have  42.000 
churches  with  property  valued  at  $76,000,000.     A  total  of 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      65 

$21,500,000  is  invested  in  property  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  the  race.  Instead  of  the  Negro  ownership  of  prop- 
erty making  race  friction  worse,  the  habits  of  industry  and 
reHability  which  the  race  develops  in  its  economic  efforts 
commend  the  black  man  to  his  white  neighbors. 

Educational  ideals.  As  the  years  go  by.  Southern  whites 
will  more  and  more  come  to  understand  what  they  owe  to 
Booker  T.  Washington  for  holding  up  the  ideal  of  industrial 
efficiency  as  the  great  mudsill  of  any  wise  program  in  Negro 
education.  His  book,  "Up  From  Slavery,"  is  one  of  the 
most  fascinating  biographies  I  have  read,  and  should  be 
better  known  by  white  readers.  The  author  credits  General 
Samuel  C.  Armstrong,  then  the  head  of  Hampton  Institute, 
Virginia,  with  being  the  author  of  the  idea  of  educating 
the  Negro  through  teaching  him  to  do  well  the  work  which 
he  would  find  in  life,  and  to  adopt  better  standards  of 
living.  But  one  cannot  trace  the  instructive  story  of  this 
man,  beginning  at  the  time  when  he  was  a  little  Negro 
urchin,  clad  in  a  single  cotton  garment,  in  the  log  kitchen, 
in  the  backyard  of  the  big  house  on  a  Virginia  farm,  with- 
out seeing  that  Dr.  Armstrong  found  in  the  penniless  black 
boy,  begging  a  chance  to  try,  a  subject  wonderfully  pre- 
pared to  profit  by  his  doctrine  of  work.  Booker  Washing- 
ton had  little  patience  with  the  faith  which  so  many  blacks 
have  seemed  to  place  in  Latin  and  Greek  as  educational 
saviours.  He  declared  that  one  of  the  saddest  things  he 
saw  during  a  whole  month  of  travel  among  the  rural  Negro 
homes  in  Alabama,  was  a  young  Negro,  who  had  attended 
some  high  school,  sitting  down  in  a  one-room  cabin,  with 
grease  on  his  clothing,  filth  around  him,  and  weeds  in  the 
yard  and  garden,  engaged  in  studying  a  French  grammar. 
It  was  this  position  of  Washington's  which  seems  to  have 


66  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

excited  the  ire  and  open  hostility  of  the  Bostonese  blacks. 
In  their  foolish  vanity,  they  charged  that  Washington  was 
trimming  his  sails  to  curry  favor  with  Southern  whites, 
who,  some  of  the  learned  whites  of  Boston  had  encouraged 
these  emigrant  blacks  to  believe,  were  inhumanly  set  on 
debasing  the  black  man  and  keeping  him  from  his  "rights." 
Against  the  long  sustained  pressure  of  the  Negroes  them- 
selves, Washington  held  to  his  gospel  of  education  by  work 
and  of  education  in  order  to  know  how  to  work.  Gradually 
the  opposition  has  waned,  and  now  other  large  Negro 
schools  and  dozens  of  lesser  ones  are  fashioned  after  the 
ideals  of  Tuskeegee  Institute.  In  his  unfaltering  devotion 
to  an  educational  program  for  the  Negroes  which  has 
already  added  tremendously  to  their  industrial  competency 
and  to  their  self-respect,  while  at  the  same  time  it  has 
commanded  the  approval  and  good  will  of  the  most  thought- 
ful whites  both  of  the  North  and  the  South,  entitles  the 
name  of  Booker  Washington  to  be  recognized  among  those 
of  America's  great  men.  In  a  real  sense  he  was  the  Moses 
for  a  race  of  10,000,000  souls. 

Schools  for  the  Negroes.  Booker  Washington  demon- 
strated that  there  is  a  system  of  Negro  education  of  col- 
legiate grade  to  which  Southern  whites  will  give  their  good 
will.  Very  few  persons  who  understand  the  work  done  at 
Tuskeegee,  fail  to  give  it  their  endorsement.  Turning  to 
the  larger  question  of  the  common  schools  and  other  edu- 
cational efforts  for  the  Negroes,  the  South  is  giving  more 
than  $10,000,000  annually  to  support  the  Negro  schools. 
It  is  true  that  this  is  not  so  much  as  is  needed,  nor  so  much 
in  proportion  as  the  white  schools  receive,  which  also  need 
improvement.  But  it  is  gratifying  that  the  South  has  ac- 
cepted the  principle  of  Negro  education  and  that  it  is  im- 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      67 

proving  the  Negro  schools,  as  the  years  go  by.  Every  effort 
in  Southern  legislatures  to  make  Negro  public  schools  de- 
pend solely  on  the  taxes  paid  by  Negroes  has  failed,  as  it 
abundantly  deserved  to  fail.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Negroes 
help  create  much  of  the  w^ealth  on  which  whites  pay  taxes. 
Ethically  they  should  be  considered  in  the  expenditure  of 
such  taxes.  A  fundamental  consideration  in  taxation  for 
public  schools  is  that  property  shall  help  educate  the 
people  who  make  possible  and  safeguard  wealth,  regard- 
less of  their  own  economic  standing,  Negro  illiteracy  de- 
creased between  1890  and  1910  from  fifty-seven  percent  to 
thirty  percent,  which  is  creditable  and  encouraging  prog- 
ress. Besides  the  expenditures  on  public  schools,  more  than 
$4,000,000  annually  from  all  other  sources  is  being  spent 
in  Negro  education. 

Ignorance  is  not  an  asset.  Ignorance  is  as  poor  an  asset 
for  the  Negro  as  for  any  other  race.  It  matters  not  that 
he  has  less  native  endowments  as  a  race  than  the  whites 
have.  According  to  his  own  needs  and  abilities,  education 
will  benefit  him  as  much  as  it  will  others.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  there  was  after  the  war  much  opposition  to 
educating  Negroes  in  the  South.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
catalog  all  the  conspiring  forces  that  gave  strength  to  this 
opposition.  One  of  the  main  objections  grew  out  of  the 
mistakes  of  some  of  those  who  first  sought  to  educate  the 
freedman,  and  out  of  the  Negro's  love  of  parade  and  dis- 
play. I  shall  never  forget  how  some  of  these  schooled 
blacks  would  come  home  and  walk  about  among  the  Ne- 
groes in  the  fields  on  my  father's  farm,  when  I  was  a  boy. 
Kid  gloves  they  wore,  an  umbrella  protected  the  cimmerian 
skin  from  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  and  the  student-visitor 
indulged  in  that  ludicrous  swagger  in  which  the  smatter- 


68  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

educated  Negro  surpasses.  Such  exhibitions  confirmed  a 
general  disbelief  in  education  for  the  Negro.  It  was  a  pity. 
The  poor  Negro  was  again  the  victim  of  his  own  weakness 
and  of  the  white  man's  snap  judgment.  Giving  all  due 
credit  to  a  number  of  faithful  white  and  Negro  leaders  who 
have  labored  to  bring  a  better  understanding  of  the  value 
of  training  for  the  blacks,  Booker  Washington  will  stand 
out  in  history  as  the  commanding  figure  who  brought  South- 
ern whites  to  a  kindlier  and  more  discerning  attitude  toward 
the  value  of  Negro  schools.  If  this  race  was  not  benefited 
by  proper  training,  it  would  be  an  exception  to  a  law  which 
applies  not  only  to  all  other  races  of  mankind,  but  also  to 
animals  and  plants.  We  improve  the  breed  and  usefulness 
of  animals  by  giving  proper  attention  to  their  needs,  and 
from  farm  crops  to  flowers  we  cultivate  the  plants  so  that 
they  may  have  their  best  chance  to  produce  fruit  and 
beauty.  The  Southern  Negro  is  no  exception  to  this  law. 
It  is  no  mean  testimony  to  the  value  of  education  for  him, 
that  an  investigation  has  shown  that  no  graduate  of  any 
well  known  Negro  school  in  the  South  has  been  imprisoned 
for  breaking  the  laws  of  the  land. 

Training  leaders.  Aside  from  educating  the  masses,  there 
is  peculiar  need  that  proper  provision  shall  be  made  for 
educating  leaders  for  the  Negroes,  and  Southern  whites 
should  participate  in  this  more  than  they  have  done.  The 
social  separation  of  the  races  forces  the  Negroes  to  look 
within  their  own  race  for  leadership.  The  white  South 
has  an  immense  concern  in  the  ability  and  character  of 
that  leadership.  The  preacher  has  been  the  outstanding 
leader  of  the  blacks,  and  far  too  often  he  has  been  with- 
out moral  or  intellectual  qualifications  to  meet  the  needs. 
There  is  improvement  now,  and  the  white  South  would  be 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      69 

surprised  and  pleased  to  know  the  fine  capacity,  the  sanity 
and  eloquence  of  not  a  few  of  the  Negro  preachers.  But 
much  needs  to  be  done  to  educate  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
preachers.  More  and  more  the  race  is  having  to  depend 
upon  its  own  physicians  and  dentists,  and  there  is  an  in- 
creasing demand  for  capable  Negro  teachers  and  business 
men.  If  this  leadership  is  to  be  provided,  it  must  be  done 
through  institutions  adequate  to  training  them  and  doing  it 
well.  In  that  training  the  Southern  white  man  ought  to 
have  an  active  part.  Southern  Baptists  have  done  much 
to  help  the  Negroes,  but  we  have  given  almost  no  white 
workers  to  go  among  the  black  people  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  and  helping  them.  Both  the  Methodists  and 
Presbyterians  of  the  South  can  show  a  larger  service  of 
this  kind  than  we,  though  the  Negroes  are  mostly  of  our 
Baptist  faith. 

Religious  aid.  There  is  evidence  of  a  growing  conviction 
among  Southern  Baptists  that  we  are  not  doing  enough 
through  aid  to  the  Negro  Baptists,  to  help  this  race  by  our 
side  here  in  the  South.  Our  missionary  effort  at  present 
does  not  annually  call  for  more  than  $20,000  to  aid  the 
Negroes.  Are  Southern  Baptists  content  to  let  their  mis- 
sionary concern  for  10,000,000  Negroes  be  measured  by 
the  gift  of  less  than  a  one-cent  postage  stamp  per  member 
per  year?  I  am  confident  they  are  not.  But  that  is  the 
extent  of  our  present  support  of  Negro  mission  and  educa- 
tional effort.  In  fact,  our  religious  body  has  found  it  dif- 
ficult wisely  to  expend  all  that  it  desired  to  expend  to  help 
the  Negro  brethren,  but  we  can  find  a  way.  At  present 
three  theological  instructors,  about  forty  general  mission- 
aries and  three  evangelists  are  the  Negro  missionary  per- 
sonnel employed  by  our  Home  Mission  Board.    The  South- 


70  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ern  Baptist  Convention  has  committed  itself  to  plans  to 
start  a  theological  seminary  for  the  Negroes,  but,  a  few 
years  since,  the  Negro  National  Baptist  Convention  split  in 
twain,  and  white  Baptists  have  waited  in  the  hope  the 
Negro  brethren  would  compose  their  difficulties.  Surely  we 
should  find  ways  to  do  more  to  help  the  Negroes  religiously, 
and  to  encourage  them  to  develop  an  able  leadership  of 
their  own.  We  are  under  a  deep  religious  debt  to  them. 
We  owe  them  more  than  we  realize  for  a  certain  unques- 
tioning quality  of  our  evangelical  faith.  Many  of  us  got 
it  in  our  early  impressions  from  a  black  "mammy,"  who 
nursed  us,  or  from  the  cook.  The  Negro  has  saved  the 
South  from  an  inundation  of  immigration  of  foreign  Roman 
Catholics,  and  for  that  the  South  is  under  deep  obligation 
to  him.  The  foreigner  enters  America  at  the  bottom,  but, 
when  he  looks  southward,  he  sees  the  Negro,  and  wisely 
passes  on  by.  He  cannot  underlive  the  Negro  or  run  him 
out.  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell  likens  the  Negro  to  a  sand-bank, 
which  resists  cannonading  better  than  walls  of  masonry, 
^  "soft  but  always  there."  Deep  as  our  problem  of  race  is, 
we  can  solve  it,  if  we  will  follow  where  Jesus  leads.  It  is 
more  hopeful  than  that  which  confronts  the  North  of  as- 
similating hordes  of  aliens,  who  are  often  ready,  under  the 
incitement  of  the  hierarchy  of  Rome,  to  set  their  alien  faces 
mutinously  against  our  fundamental  law  of  separation  of 
Church  and  State.  To  aid  this  race  which  has  helped  us. 
Southern  Christian  bodies  have  not  done  so  much  as  they 
ought.  Of  their  efforts,  W.  D.  Weatherford,  a  Southern 
Methodist,  whose  two  books,  "Present  Forces  in  Negro 
Progress,"  and  "Negro  Life  in  the  South,"  are  of  excep- 
tional value,  says:  "No  Southern  man  of  any  pride  can 
read  the  scant  reports  of  our  Southern  churches  in  their 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      71 

efforts  to  uplift  the  Negro  without  hanging  his  head  in 
shame.  Of  course,  we  have  been  poor.  Of  course,  we  do 
not  forget  the  sickening  scenes  of  reconstruction  days.  Of 
course,  we  have  been  misunderstood.  But  if  we  are  men 
we  will  forget  the  past  in  a  mighty  effort  to  redeem  the 
present.  *  *  *  God  pity  the  Southern  Christians,  the 
Southern  churches  and  the  Southern  States,  if  we  do  not 
awake  to  our  responsibility  in  this  hour  of  opportunity." 
To  which  may  we  all  add  an  earnest.  Amen! 

Encouraging  Negro  leaders.  A  single  chapter  on  so  large 
a  theme  forbids  an  effort  to  deal  in  detailed  suggestions,  but 
I  must  call  attention  to  the  desirability  of  Southern  whites 
making  more  effort  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  leadership  of 
the  Negroes.  Shocked  into  awareness  by  a  race  riot,  this 
is  what  Atlanta  almost  instinctly  did,  and  through  this  ap- 
proach order  and  understanding  was  restored.  If  there  was 
more  of  this  approachment  in  times  of  quiet,  race  disorders 
would  be  greatly  reduced.  Particularly  should  the  white 
preachers  and  laymen  approach  the  Negro  leaders  in  the 
churches  and  counsel  with  them  on  matters  of  race  welfare. 
More  often  the  whites  should  initiate  these  conferences,  in- 
stead of  waiting  to  be  approached  by  the  Negroes,  as  our 
preachers  and  laymen  usually  do.  It  can  hardly  be  said 
that  the  white  pulpit  of  the  South  has  been  the  leading 
voice  toward  forming  a  conscience  looking  to  aiding  the 
Negroes.  So  far  the  most  significant  meeting  of  Southern 
whites  for  the  consideration  of  Negro  welfare  has  been  that 
of  the  Southern  Sociological  Conference,  an  extra-eccles- 
iastical organization.  Not  often  do  our  Southern  preachers 
advise  and  instruct  their  people  about  treating  the  Negro 
well.  Yet  the  pulpit  ought  to  be  able  to  claim  the  leader- 
ship in  so  great  a  challenge  to  the  public  conscience. 


72  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

What  our  ministers  can  do.  It  is  distinctly  a  moral  prob- 
lem, and  the  enlightened  conscience  of  the  South  would 
respond  to  the  challenge  of  the  churches  of  Christ,  if  they 
would  speak  with  conviction  on  this  subject.  There  have 
been  preachers  who  were  faithful.  Mrs.  L.  H.  Hammond, 
of  Augusta,  Georgia,  in  her  book,  "In  BL.ck  and  White," 
tells  that,  after  an  outburst  of  race  antagonism  in  her  sec- 
tion, she  asked  a  Negro  from  a  South  Carolina  town  if 
such  feeling  existed  in  his  section.  "No,  ma'am,  it  don't," 
he  answered;  "not  for  a  long  time."  "Then  it  used  to 
exist?"  "Oh,  yes'm.  We  ain't  had  a  thing  but  trouble  till 
these  last  few  years."  "What  stopped  it?"  "A  white 
preacher  stopped  it.  He  got  all  the  white  preachers  in 
town  to  preach  about  Christ's  way  of  treating  colored  folks, 
all  on  the  same  day.  They  did  it  several  times  later  also; 
and  there  ain't  any  more  trouble  since.  Some  white  folks 
got  mad;  but  the  preachers  stuck  it  cut,  and  ncv  the  white 
folks  treat  us  right,  and  we  all  are  behaving  better."  There 
are  hundreds  of  towns  and  thousands  of  pulpits  in  v/hich 
such  preaching  should  be  done.  There  is  a  manifest  in- 
sincerity in  studying  to  understand  the  peculiarities  and 
foibles  and  weaknesses  of  the  Chinese  in  Shanghai  and 
the  blacks  in  Central  Africa,  while  we  side-step  the  trouble- 
some Negro  question  at  our  doors,  because  forsooth,  some- 
body may  "get  mad."  Southern  preachers  cannot  main- 
tain the  prestige  and  influence  of  their  God-given  spiritual 
leadership  without  devoting  to  this  question  some  of  the  at- 
tention it  abundantly  merits.  White  preachers  and  laymen 
should  seek  opportunities  to  speak  to  Negro  congregations, 
and  use  their  influence  to  get  a  hearing  by  the  whites  of 
Negro  leaders  who  have  a  message  from  their  race.  In 
South    Carolina,    Rev.    Richard   Carroll,    a    Baptist   Negro 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      73 

leader  of  ability  and  irreproachable  character,  has  done  un- 
told good  by  speaking  to  white  audiences  throughout  that 
State.  It  is  a  matter  of  remark  that  wherever  Brother 
Carroll  speaks  better  local  race  relations  ensue. 

A  social  conscience  needed.  To  Mrs.  Hammond  belongs 
the  credit  of  pointing  out  that  the  South  has  a  personal 
conscience  for  the  Negro,  but  no  social  conscience.  The 
North  has  had  a  social  conscience  for  him,  but  no  personal 
conscience.  This  Northern  social  conscience,  declares  this 
gifted  writer,  which  was  embryonic  concerning  slum  and 
immigrant  conditions  at  home,  operated  like  a  clock  with- 
out a  pendulum,  working  overtime,  concerning  the  Southern 
race  problem,  and  was  bent  on  growth  by  cataclysm,  in- 
stead of  by  normal  readjustments.  But  Mrs.  Hammond 
does  not  spare  the  South  a  faithful  measure  of  admoni- 
tion concerning  the  evils  which  have  come  upon  us  because 
we  have  so  little  social  conscience  for  the  Negro.  She  rightly 
traces  to  this  fact  the  possibility  of  most  of  the  shameful 
lynchings  which  disgrace  our  civilization.  An  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  white  citizens  are  opposed  to  lynchings  and 
deplore  them,  but  the  absence  of  a  recognized  community 
spirit  which  will  call  to  strict  account  the  few  depraved  and 
brutal  men  who  lead  in  the  lynchings,  makes  it  possible  for 
these  base  enemies  of  society  to  glut  their  appetite  for 
cruelty  against  the  helpless  and  weak  blacks,  without  fear 
that  they  shall  suffer  the  just  penalty  of  their  crime.  Not 
a  few  Southern  legal  practitioners,  including  criminal  court 
judges,  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  blacks  for  the  same 
offences  ordinarily  get  more  punishment  in  our  courts  than 
the  whites,  and  have  less  than  an  equal  showing  before 
our  courts  of  law.  Christian  men  and  women  of  the  South 
cannot  quietly  acquiesce  in  such  a  situation  as  this.    They 


74  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

are  morally  bound  to  work  for  even  justice  for  all.  The 
South  has  much  of  which  it  may  be  proud.  But  it  can 
only  feel  shame,  if  it  has  allowed  to  get  a  foothold  in  our 
social  order  a  system  which  measures  out  justice  for  the 
strong  white  and  helpless  black  by  difFerent  yardsticks. 
Thousands  of  noble  white  men  defend  their  own  black 
people  against  oppression  and  take  pride  and  satisfaction 
in  doing  so.  But  that  nobility  of  spirit  which  thus  pro- 
tects a  Negro  acquaintance  or  a  laborer  in  our  fields  or 
kitchen,  must  be  made  available  by  the  white  social  con- 
science for  even  the  weakest  and  most  worthless  Negro, 
who  has  no  "white  folks"  to  whom  he  can  fly  in  the  hour 
of  trouble  and  danger. 

The  supreme  test  of  our  religion.  As  these  lines  are  being 
written,  we  are  at  war  with  Germany.  The  world  has  be- 
come almost  a  strange  place  in  which  to  live.  Pressure  is 
coming  upon  every  one  of  us  from  many  sides  and  in  many 
unprecedented  ways.  Almost  one  loses  his  power  to  be 
surprised  at  anything  that  happens.  "Oh,  thou  God  of  Na- 
tions, God  of  our  fathers,  bring  peace  soon,  a  righteous 
peace;  and  scourge  from  the  hearts  of  rulers  and  people 
worldly  ambition,  greed  and  sin,"  is  the  prayer  of  many  a 
burdened  heart.  Alongside  of  our  sons,  who  are  going 
to  fight  to  make  the  world  a  safe  place  to  live  in,  will  fight 
the  sons  of  the  slaves  of  our  fathers.  In  another  war,  fifty 
years  ago,  those  slaves  were  true  to  trust  in  thousands  of 
unprotected  Southern  homes  and  to  friendship  and  love, 
as  servants  to  the  fighting  masters,  on  many  a  bloody  battle 
field.  The  black  American  soldier's  record  has  not  yet 
been  made  in  this  war,  but  the  readiness  of  their  response 
to  the  country's  call  has  touched  every  generous  heart. 
In  the  providence  of  God,  the  Negro's  home  is  the  South, 


AID  FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO      75 

just  as  truly  as  our  homes  are  here.  If  we  kick  him  into 
the  ditch,  we  can  only  keep  him  there  by  staying  with  him. 
If  we  impose  on  him,  he  may  have  the  purification  of  those 
who  suffer  unjustly  and  upon  whose  suffering  God  looks; 
but  there  can  be  only  a  hardening  of  heart  on  the  part  of 
him  who  unjustly  raises  his  hand  against  his  weak  brother. 
Strength  through  hewing  the  lowly.  Will  we  in  hu- 
mility accept  our  burden  and  our  task?  If  we  do,  it 
shall  prove  to  be  both  our  opportunity  and  the  means  of 
added  strength.  If  we  refuse,  it  cannot  but  react  on  us 
in  the  dwarfing  of  the  quality  of  the  South's  spiritual  life. 
Our  Lord  Jesus  has  taught  the  world  by  his  own  example 
how  to  help  the  lowly  and  the  despised  without  being  in- 
jured or  lowered  by  the  contact.  So  long  as  we  touch  those 
who  are  lower  or  less  fortunate  than  we,  for  the  purpose 
of  doing  them  good,  instead  of  losing  virtue  or  character 
by  the  contact,  we  strengthen  our  own  characters,  while 
we  lift  up  our  human  brother.  The  one  perfect  man  as- 
sociated with  publicans  and  sinners,  and  every  regenerate 
heart  blesses  His  name,  because  no  human  being  was  too 
low  to  be  sought  and  saved  by  the  Son  of  God.  There  is 
no  way  to  greatness  in  the  Christian  vocation,  except  by 
the  service  of  a  love  which  is  willing  to  stoop  that  it  may 
lift  the  needy.  The  Negro  at  our  doors  is  no  exception. 
It  is  a  pitiful  thing  to  see  Christian  men  and  women  mani- 
festing tokens  of  great  concern  for  masses  of  people, 
black  and  white  and  yellow,  far  removed  in  other  countries, 
while  they  cannot  see  this  great  problem  which  mutely 
stares  them  in  the  face  every  day.  The  far-away  does 
not  nag  and  worry,  it  does  not  arouse  passion,  or  ex- 
cite cupidity,  it  does  not  aggravate  us  every  time  we  turn 
around.   The  near  often  does,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Negro. 


76  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

But  the  near  is  therefore  only  the  surer  test  of  the 
strength  and  worth  of  our  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  whose  love 
was  great  enough  to  encompass  those  who  were  about  him, 
though  many  of  them  hated  him. 

A  prayer.  Lord  Jesus,  in  thy  providence  the  black  man 
is  in  the  South,  10,000,000  of  them.  They  are  different 
from  the  whites  in  many  ways.  They  have  come  up  from 
barbarism  and  through  the  lowly  estate  of  slavery.  Our 
own  ancestors  were  their  masters.  Thou  knowest.  Oh  God, 
the  war  and  the  blood  and  the  passion  and  the  prejudice 
between  races  and  sections  which  have  attended  the  pres- 
ence of  this  race  in  the  South.  Thou  knowest  how  our  phil- 
osophy does  not  suffice  and  how  our  statesmanship  becomes 
halt  and  lame,  when  they  confront  this  question.  But  thou 
has  not  left  us  without  light.  Thou,  who  did  give  thy 
blood  for  the  lowliest  black,  as  well  as  for  the  strongest 
white,  hast  shown  us  how  the  lowly  and  the  high  may  walk 
together  in  peace  and  in  the  mutual  helpfulness  of  each 
to  the  other.  Make  us  willing.  Oh  Christ,  to  walk  in  the 
way  which  thou  hast  clearly  pointed  out  to  us,  of  service, 
of  helpfulness  and  forbearance.  Thou  hast  promised  that 
those  who  are  willing  to  do  thy  will  shall  know  the  truth. 
We  believe  thee,  our  Master,  and,  though  we  cannot  under- 
stand the  future  of  this  great  question  of  race  in  the  South, 
we  are  serenely  confident  that  it  shall  become  better  and 
better  for  both  races  just  in  proportion  as  we  live  up  to 
thy  teachings  which  we  do  understand.  Make  us  willing! 
Arouse  our  consciences  afresh  concerning  our  duty  to  the 
Negroes  in  the  South,  and  show  us  and  them  the  way  to 
better  and  brighter  things,  through  thine  own  blessed  spirit 
and  wisdom.    Amen. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  III. 

1.  Give  indications  that  the  Negro  problem  is  in  a  hopeful  way. 

2.  Describe  his  virtues  and  short-comings  and  tell  of  past  re- 
ligious efforts  to  aid  him. 

3.  Name    and   discuss   some   of   the   leading   difficulties   in   the 
problem. 

4.  What  of  the  economic  progress  of  the  blacks? 

5.  Discuss  educational  ideals  and  progress  of  the  Negroes. 

6.  Discuss  the  need  of  trained  Negro  leaders  and  of  religious 
aid  to  this  end. 

7.  Tell  of  the  need  of  a  social  conscience  for  the  Negro,  and 
how  it  may  be  developed. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS. 

Not  all  in  the  moantains.  Most  of  this  chapter  is  to  be 
about  the  mountain  people.  But  they  are  not  all,  perhaps 
not  even  the  majority,  of  the  belated  people  in  the  South. 
If  we  add  to  the  4,000,000  Southern  highlanders.  1 ,500,000 
more  who  reside  in  the  Ozarks  of  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and 
Oklahoma,  the  more  than  5,000,000  white  highlanders  of 
the  South,  will  not  outnumber  the  belated  people  who  in 
this  section  are  still  living  in  various  other  quiet  pockets 
of  our  twentieth  century  civilization.  In  valleys  of  the 
Appalachians  reside  people  who  are  often  as  intelligent 
and  progressive  as  the  more  advanced  outlanders,  but 
these  valleys  make  up  only  a  small  proportion  of  the 
mountain  country.  The  United  States  topographers  report 
that  in  Appalachia,  as  a  whole,  the  mountain  slopes  oc- 
cupy ninety  percent  of  the  total  area,  and  that  eighty- 
five  percent  of  the  land  has  a  steeper  slope  than  one  foot 
in  five.  The  characteristic  condition  of  the  mountain  peo- 
ple is  that  of  pioneer  backwardness.  Nearly  three-fourths 
of  them  are  still  living  largely  as  did  our  ancestors  of  the 
eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries.  From  the  cur- 
rents of  progress  and  change  these  have  been  shut  in  be- 
hind the  great  ramparts  of  their  mountains.  This  isolation 
for  long  shut  them  off  from  understanding  observation. 
But  the  very  largeness  of  the  mountain  country  and  the 
similarity  of  conditions  throughout  its  reach  have  made 
it  comparatively  easy  to  objectify  it  in  effective  appeal. 
Therefore  appropriate  activities  have  been  inaugurated  by 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  79 

a  number  of  Christian  bodies  in  this  field,  while  the  needs 
are  not  yet  surveyed  among  some  other  sections  of  our 
retarded  population. 

The  Southwestern  frontier.  The  Southwestern  frontiers- 
man is  not  a  belated  American,  nor  in  any  absolute  sense 
even  a  neglected  American.  Earnest  missionary  effort  is 
being  put  forth  to  help  the  men  and  women  of  the  frontier 
to  establish  religion  and  social  order  to-day,  in  communities 
which  were  only  yesterday  claimed  from  the  wildness  of 
unsubdued  nature.  Blessed  fruits  are  being  gathered  from 
the  effort.  At  the  same  time,  a  voiceless  tragedy  is  being 
enacted  in  many  a  frontier  community  which  is  destitute  of 
spiritual  leadership.  The  frontiersman  is  environed  by 
much  of  the  loneliness  of  pioneer  life,  and  is  even  more 
desperately  in  need  of  aid  in  setting  up  the  saving  forces 
of  society.  He  is  not  a  man  of  the  schooner  and  overland 
trek,  but  of  the  Pullman  car,  automobile,  and  telephone, 
and  he  has  the  information  that  has  come  from  reading 
newspapers  and  from  contact  with  men.  With  the  frontier 
community  of  the  Southwest  the  pace  is  very  rapid,  and  the 
crystallization  of  community  life  into  good  or  bad  forms 
equally  so.  The  needs  of  the  old  pioneer  community  could 
and  did  wait;  not  so  with  the  needs  of  new  communities  on 
the  plains,  where  speed  seems  to  be  a  condition  of  success 
and  of  life  itself.  In  great  sections  of  Texas  and  Oklahoma, 
nearly  all  of  New  Mexico,  and  in  some  parts  of  Arkansas 
and  Louisiana,  there  is  still  a  large  mission  service  to  be 
rendered,  if  we  are  to  bring  new  communities  into  existence 
under  the  wholesome  restraints  and  the  inspiration  of  re- 
ligious purpose.  Southern  Baptists  are  doing  a  fine  work 
in  this  field,  which  could  well  be  doubled  or  even  quad- 
rupled. 


80  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Other  belated  people.  In  the  "piney-woods,"  "wire- 
grass,"  "sand-hill,"  and  other  remote  sections  in  most  of 
the  Southern  States  there  is  still  a  disadvantaged  and  be- 
lated population  that  will  aggregate  possibly  a  larger  num- 
ber of  white  people  than  are  in  the  mountains.  In  some 
small  sections  of  Virginia,  in  parts  of  eastern  North  Caro- 
lina, coastbelt  of  South  Carolina,  lower  Georgia  and  Ala- 
bama, much  of  Florida,  some  of  Mississippi,  districts  of 
Louisiana,  parts  of  the  plains  of  Arkansas,  and  certain  parts 
of  western  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  there  is  a  population 
which  aggregates  still  unverified  millions,  who  are  quite  as 
much  in  need  of  aid  from  the  agencies  of  enlargement  and 
Christianization  as  are  the  mountain  people.  Nor  is  Texas, 
though  a  younger  State,  to  be  left  out  of  this  count.  There 
are  some  places  in  eastern  Texas  in  which  the  forces  of 
progress  and  education  have  passed  the  people  by,  leaving 
them  in  the  backwater  of  remote  communities.  No  modern 
expert  has  undertaken  to  set  forth  in  a  survey  the  needs 
and  numbers  of  these  neglected  peoples  of  the  South.  No 
religious  body  has  sought  to  gather  up  to  its  heart  in  sjrm- 
pathetic  understanding  and  put  forth  again  in  appropriate 
helpful  activities  the  needs  of  these  our  undistinguished 
neglected  brothers.  These  belated  outlanders  are  probably 
the  most  neglected  people  in  the  South.  They  are  the  joy  of 
the  Holy  Roller  propagandist,  the  favored  foraging  ground 
of  the  Mormon  elder,  the  most  promising  field  of  the  Rus- 
sellite  tract  distributor,  the  delight  of  the  political  dema- 
gogue, and  an  anxious  problem  of  the  Christian  statesman. 
There  is  great  need  that  they  shall  become  the  objects  of 
anxious  concern  and  of  suitable  aid  on  the  part  of  our 
evangelical  religious  bodies.  Many  of  them  are  nominally 
Baptists.     Most  of  the  rest  who  profess  any  religion  are 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  81 

Methodists.  A  great  responsibility  is  here  for  the  shoulders 
of  these  two  religious  bodies.  Every  quack  religionist,  ex- 
citing and  misleading  these  uninstructed  people,  is  a  rebuke 
to  the  Baptists  and  Methodists.  We  have  had  their  ear 
and  confidence,  and  our  neglect  has  left  them  to  become 
victims  of  the  first  peddler  of  emotional  religious  nostrums. 
In  a  day  when  the  Southern  Baptists  are  raising  about  half 
a  million  annually  for  all  their  Home  Mission  effort,  here 
is  an  almost  untouched  field  of  effort,  which  we  have  not 
even  surveyed,  but  in  which  probably  our  entire  gifts  to 
Home  Missions  could  be  wisely  expended. 

The  ultimate  American  native.  The  Indian  is  a  neglected 
American  and  about  one-half  of  the  330,000  now  in  the 
United  States  are  in  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  ter- 
ritory. Oklahoma  has  123,000  Indian  population,  about 
three  times  as  many  as  any  other  State.  New  Mexico 
comes  third  in  the  number  of  Indians,  with  25,000.  North 
Carolina  has  8,000,  Mississippi  1,300,  Alabama  1,000,  and 
Arkansas,  Florida,  Louisiana,  South  Carolina,  Texas,  and 
Virginia  have  each  from  350  to  800  Indians.  For  more 
than  sixty  years.  Southern  Baptists  have  conducted  mis- 
sionary work  among  the  Oklahoma  Indians.  Recently  the 
Home  Mission  Board  has  reopened  a  mission  among  the 
Cherokees  in  Western  North  Carolina,  which  it  conducted 
before  the  Civil  War,  and  started  a  new  mission  among 
the  Mississippi  Choctaws.  Our  mission  work  in  Oklahoma 
has  been  greatly  prospered.  There  are  in  that  State  now 
about  4,600  Indian  Baptists  in  1 23  churches,  of  which  more 
than  three-fourths  are  self-sustaining.  It  is  estimated  that 
half  of  the  membership  in  religious  bodies  among  the  Okla- 
homa Indians  is  in  Baptist  churches.  This  is  a  fine  testi- 
monial to  the  value  of  our  Baptist  efforts,  but  does  not  indi- 


82  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

cate  that  we  have  done  a  full  and  satisfactory  part  in 
teaching  the  native  Red  Men  of  America  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  Among  the  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  the  Home 
Mission  Society  of  New  York  is  still  conducting  mis- 
sionary work  for  the  Baptists,  which  they  are  also  doing 
among  some  of  the  Oklahoma  Blanket  Tribes  and  in  the 
Indian  school,  Bacone  University.  The  Indians  do  not 
number  many,  as  compared  with  other  peoples  who  are  in 
need  of  missionary  aid  in  our  country,  but  their  need  is 
very  great.  Except  as  they  are  evangelized,  their  heathen- 
ism is  as  complete  as  that  of  the  people  of  any  pagan 
country  in  the  world,  and  the  treatment  which  they  have 
received  at  the  hands  of  white  men  who  coveted  what 
the  Indian  had  has  been  unworthy  of  a  civilization  which 
calls  itself  Christian.  It  constitutes  an  appeal  which  should 
move  Christian  men  and  women  to  a  large  and  generous 
effort  to  Christianize  them.  The  Indians  are  an  impres- 
sive demonstration  at  our  doors  that  education  and  civ- 
ilization do  not  Christianize  or  even  civilize,  but  that 
Christianity  does  civilize.  I  respectfully  challenge  any  in- 
terested man  or  woman  to  the  proof.  Any  of  the  faithful 
missionaries  to  the  Indians  will  gladly  aifford  facilities  for 
the  investigation. 

Baptist  thanks  due  the  Presbjrterians.  A  Christian  body 
that  has  a  great  extensive  outreach  is  by  its  very  success 
in  evangelism  ever  creating  a  great  task  of  intensive  devel- 
opment. The  life  is  to  be  saved,  as  well  as  the  soul.  Baptists 
in  the  South  have  for  a  century  been  soul  winners  whose 
success  has  not  been  surpassed  by  any  other  American 
group.  But  they  have  had  no  conviction  concerning  their 
obligation  to  save  the  lives  of  the  converts,  at  all  compar- 
able to  their  passion   for  evangelism.     Our  leaders   have 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  83 

always  pointed  us  to  the  necessity  of  educating  those  who 
shall  become  leaders.  Our  people  in  more  favored  com- 
munities  have  sensed  the  importance  of  an  educated  laity. 
But  our  individualism  and  democracy  have  conspired  to 
make  us  tardy  in  a  cultural  mission  program  to  strengthen 
and  save  the  lives  of  the  rank  and  file  of  our  people,  even 
when  they  are  in  our  churches.  Following  years  of  ad- 
monition and  pleading  by  the  saintly  Isaac  T.  Tichenor,  in 
1900  we  bethought  ourselves  of  the  need  of  doing  some- 
thing to  enlarge  the  lives  and  outlook  of  our  brothers  in 
the  Southern  mountains,  but  not  even  Dr.  Tichenor's  pleas 
were  sufficient,  unaided,  to  produce  the  result.  In  1879, 
Northern  Presbyterians  started  to  develop  a  system  of 
schools  among  our  mountain  people.  They  said:  "We 
recognize  that  the  mountaineers  are  chiefly  in  the  Baptist 
communion,  but  if  the  Baptist  Boards  and  Conventions  are 
not  in  a  position  to  give  these  people  educational  oppor- 
tunity, we  feel  that  we  are  and  that  we  must  do  so."  Dr. 
John  E.  White,  then  Secretary  of  Missions  in  North  Carolina, 
a  statesman  every  inch,  and  with  a  generous  passion  for  and 
understanding  of  the  highlander  people,  in  1898  chal- 
lenged the  North  Carolina  Convention,  whether  they  would 
leave  our  manifest  Baptist  duty  for  Presbyterians  to  per- 
form. Their  prompt.  No!  became  the  response  of  all 
Southern  Baptists,  in  1900,  when  Dr.  White  before  the 
Southern  Convention  made  a  plea  for  the  establishment 
of  Baptist  mission  schools  among  the  mountain  people,  and 
outlined  a  plan  which  the  Convention  adopted  and  under 
which  our  Home  Board  system  of  schools  is  conducted 
until  this  day.  The  point  I  now  offer  for  consideration  is 
that  we  are  due  thanks  to  the  Presbyterians  for  spurring 
Baptists   forward  into   the  performance  of  their  duty  in 


84  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

working  to  save  for  Christ  and  society  the  lives  of  a  large 
and  neglected  section  of  their  people. 

The  moantaiii  conntry.  No  more  inviting  and  beautiful 
country  or  interesting  people  are  in  America  than  in  the 
Southern  highlands.  There  is  much  about  the  highlander 
which  suggests  a  hallowed  past.  People  who  live  near  to 
nature  inspire  an  interest  which  shrinks  and  dies  in  the 
presence  of  the  conventionalities  and  artificialities  of  man- 
kind in  crowds  and  cities.  The  glory  of  nature  appeals  to 
men  and  this  glory  abides  in  matchless  profusion  and 
beauty  in  the  great  section  where  our  forest-clad  moun- 
tains rear  their  mighty  heads.  Glory,  majesty,  mystery,  and 
a  strange  beauty  have  their  favored  haunts  amid  the  val- 
leys and  peaks,  where  the  vast  silences  are  broken  by  the 
song  of  waterfalls  and  the  muttering  of  summer  thunders, 
speaking  of  God.  This  region  of  mystery  and  majesty  in- 
cludes in  the  Southern  Appalachians,  at  the  least,  1 78  coun- 
ties, in  seven  States,  and  has  an  area  of  76,600  square 
miles.  It  extends  from  the  northeast  toward  the  southwest, 
about  600  miles,  and  in  places  is  200  miles  across.  Its 
higher  watersheds  form  the  boundaries  between  most  of 
the  Southeastern  States  and  its  area  and  population  are 
about  twice  as  great  as  those  of  any  one  of  those  States. 
Its  forest-clad  valleys  and  peaks  crown  with  their  beauty 
and  the  unexhausted  resources  of  soil,  forests,  mines,  and 
unspoiled  human  beings,  the  seven  States  of  Virginia,  North 
and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and 
Alabama. 

*The  back  of  beyond."  Under  the  heading  here  used 
Horace  Kephart  has  a  chapter  in  his  book,  "Our  Southern 
Highlanders."  Mr.  Kephart  has  made  an  able  and  valu- 
able contribution  to  American  literature  in  this  work,  and 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  85 

has  placed  under  obligation  to  him  every  friend  and  student 
of  the  Southern  highlands.  In  addition  to  giving  more  in- 
formation  about  the  mountains  and  the  people  than  can 
be  found  anj^where  else,  he  writes  with  a  charm  that  fas- 
cinates and  holds.  My  best  safeguard  against  quoting  Mr. 
Kephart  at  great  length  here  is  the  rigid  necessity  of  dis- 
posing of  the  subject  with  brevity.  In  the  chapter,  "The 
Back  of  Beyond,"  the  author  describes  the  unique  environ- 
ment which  conditions  life  in  most  of  the  highlands.  "The 
back  country  is  rough,"  he  says.  "No  boat  or  canoe  can 
stem  its  brawling  waters.  No  bicycle  nor  automobile  can 
enter  it.  Here  is  a  land  of  lumber  wagons,  and  saddle- 
bags, and  shackly  little  sleds  that  are  dragged  over  the 
bare  ground  by  harnessed  steers.  This  is  the  country  that 
ordinary  tourists  shun.  And  well  for  such,  whoso  cares 
more  for  bodily  comfort  than  for  freedom  and  air  and 
elbow-room  should  tarry  by  still  waters  and  pleasant  pas- 
tures." Again:  "All  about  us  was  the  forest  primeval, 
where  roamed  some  sparse  herds  of  cattle,  razor-back  hogs, 
and  the  wild  beasts.  Speckled  trout  were  in  all  the  streams. 
Bears  sometimes  raided  the  fields,  and  wildcats  were  a  com- 
mon nuisance.  Our  settlement  was  a  mere  slash  in  the 
vast  woodland  that  encompassed  it."  In  this  country  the 
hill-side  farms  are  often  on  a  slope  of  forty-five  degrees, 
sometimes  tilled  to  the  brink  of  a  precipice.  John  Fox  tells 
of  a  Kentucky  farmer  who  fell  out  of  his  cornfield  and 
broke  his  neck,  and  a  mountain  woman  said  to  Horace 
Kephart:  "I've  hoed  corn  many  a  time  on  my  knees — yes, 
I  have."  Another  said:  "Many's  the  hill  o'  corn  I've 
propped  up  with  a  rock  to  keep  it  from  fallin'  downhill." 
It  was  a  Virginia  mountaineer  who  said:  "I  plant  my  po- 
tatoes in  rows  straight  up  and  down  the  mountain  side  to 


86  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

save  digging.    At  digging  time  I  just  open  the  lower  end 
of  each  row  and  catch  the  potatoes  in  a  bag." 

SensitiveneM  of  mountain  people.  The  mountaineer  is 
high-strung  and  sensitive  to  criticism.  He  resents  having 
attention  called  to  his  peculiarities.  It  seems  to  him  that 
to  do  so  is  to  hold  him  up  to  ridicule  or  blame.  He  does 
not  see  how  the  outlander  can  find  beauty  and  charm  in 
the  story  of  the  quaint  ways  of  life  which  the  rest  of  the 
world  has  cast  aside.  He  is  likely  to  consider  the  most 
tactful  effort  to  tell  the  story  of  the  peculiarities  of  his  life 
and  environment  as  a  vulgar  curiosity  and  meddlesomeness. 
He  has  not  been  without  just  cause  for  resentment.  Some 
writers  have  without  fine  sympathy  exploited  him  before  a 
curious  and  more  or  less  vulgar  public.  But,  even  with  the 
utmost  caution,  one  can  hardly  write  graphically  of  our 
mountain  cousins  without  arousing  in  them  a  certain  an- 
tagonism. The  mountaineer  feels  that  he  is  as  good  and 
worthy  of  respect  as  the  outlander,  and  in  this  he  is  right. 
But  if  he  had  advanced  in  social  organization  to  where  he 
was  trying  to  gather  up  the  interest  of  all  the  highlanders 
to  help  others  than  mountaineers,  he  would  find  it  necessary 
to  portray  to  his  people  the  conditions  which  circumstance 
the  people  to  be  aided.  The  mountain  people  have  good 
native  qualities  and  great  currents  of  unexhausted  blood, 
which  must  and  will  bless  and  strengthen  the  whole  of  our 
Southern  life.  But  the  ramparts  of  the  hills  have  for  long 
shut  out  from  the  mountaineer's  children  the  opportunities 
which  those  of  other  sections  have.  A  God-inspired  desire 
has  arisen  among  Christian  people  to  aid  in  remedying  this 
lack.  It  is  aid  that  we  ought  to  give,  and  the  mountain 
brother  may  receive  it  without  any  discredit  to  even  his 
spirit  of  independence. 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  87 

A  wish  for  the  highlander.  Our  mountain  brother  must 
permit  us  to  portray  the  conditions  of  his  Hfe  out  of  which 
arise  the  needs  which  we  want  to  aid.  He  need  not  assert 
that  he  is  "just  Hke  other  folks."  In  his  pure  American 
blood  and  his  pioneer  independence,  he  is  really  more  "like 
other  folks"  than  they  themselves  are.  But  he  has  lived 
in  the  backwaters  of  modern  life  currents,  which  elsewhere 
have  flowed  rapidly.  In  this  he  is  not  like  other  folks. 
Even  when  he  shall  have,  through  the  Christian  education  of 
his  children,  gotten  the  best  which  modern  life  may  be  able 
to  aid  him  in  getting,  many  of  his  best  and  most  loyal 
friends  hope  he  shall  still  not  become  "just  like  other  folks," 
but  that  he  shall,  amid  the  glory  of  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
his  own  great  skyland  country,  maintain  a  civilization  of 
high  thinking  and  simple  living.  Such  a  civilization  in 
Appalachia  would  at  once  rebuke  and  bless  the  outlander 
people,  who  are  in  grave  danger  of  becoming  vulgar  and 
selfish  in  their  haste  for  material  benefits.  Meantime,  it 
will  relieve  the  embarrassment  of  some  of  his  truest  friends 
and  well-wishers  if  the  mountain  man  will  try  to  get  over 
his  squeamish  distrust  of  even  the  most  sympathetic  efforts 
to  interpret  him  and  his  highlands  to  the  mere  outsiders. 

Isolation.  The  differences  of  the  highlander  from  the 
average  native  American  may  be  summed  up  in  the  single 
word  isolation.  Other  sections  of  our  population  have  suf- 
fered from  isolation,  but  no  other  single  group  of  these 
is  so  large  as  this  group.  Nor  has  the  isolation  been  so 
complete  with  other  retarded  groups.  Comparatively,  the 
remote  piney-woods,  wire-grass,  and  sand-hill  sections  are 
like  so  many  small  islands  in  a  restless  sea  of  social  move- 
ment. The  people  from  these  look  out  across  the  waters  of 
surrounding  social  progress  and  occasionally  go  to  sea  for 


88  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

themselves.  Not  so  with  the  average  mountaineer.  His 
land  is  like  a  great  island  continent.  He  usually  does  not 
look  out  from  its  shores.  And  his  home  in  "the  back  of 
beyond"  is  too  difficult  of  access  for  the  "furriner"  to  influ- 
ence it  much  by  peaceful  penetration.  In  isolation  the  high- 
lander  is  America's  last  and  greatest  word.  Does  his  quaint 
dialect  interest  you.  with  its  idioms  of  obsolete  English?  It 
has  been  preserved  by  his  isolation.  Are  you  touched  and 
won  by  his  smple  reverence  and  faith,  in  a  day  in  which 
the  smile  of  skepticism  mars  the  face  sof  many  at  the  least 
provocation?  Solitude,  meditation,  and  intimate  contact 
with  the  great  unchained  forces  of  nature  account  for  his 
reverence.  Are  you  charmed  by  the  cordial  hospitality  of 
the  poorest  mountain  cabin?  It  is  the  solitude  of  life  that 
opens  each  man's  heart  to  the  needs  of  his  fellow,  in  a 
wholesome  free-masonry  of  human  kinship.  Does  the 
rugged  independence  and  self-reliance  of  this  people  excite 
your  admiration?  It  is  the  fruit  of  generations  of  battling 
with  nature  each  man  for  himself,  with  none  to  help.  And 
it  is  the  same  with  the  stoicism  with  which  the  highlander 
endures  pain  or  makes  a  joke  of  his  deprivations.  Prac- 
tically every  peculiarity  of  this  great  belated  section  of 
our  citizenship  may  be  explained  in  terms  of  his  long  iso- 
lation from  the  ordinary  currents  of  American  life.  It 
should  be  understood  that  the  mountaineer's  isolation  is  not 
merely  from  the  outsiders,  but  from  any  considerable  con- 
tact with  his  hillsmen.  There  is  a  reason.  The  mountains 
themselves  discourage  intercommunication  with  neighbors. 
Kephart  tells  of  a  mountain  ridge  nearly  150  miles  long, 
which  is  practically  impassible  for  the  entire  distance.  An- 
other writer  speaks  of  a  married  daughter  who  lived  in  a 
straight  course  six  miles  from  her  father's  home  across  the 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  89 

mountain  for  twelve  years,  without  visiting  it  once,  becaus*- 
it  would  have  required  a  trip  of  twenty  miles  over  rough 
roads.  Since  the  hills  have  discouraged  the  formation  of  a 
community  spirit,  the  hillsman  is  conscious  of  no  tug  of 
public  interest  that  would  lead  him  forth  into  conclaves  of 
his  kind. 

The  land  of  do  without.  Kephart  has  a  charming  chapter 
on  "The  Land  of  Do  Without."  This  writer's  gifted  inter- 
pretations of  mountaineer  life  doubtless  got  their  charm  in 
part  from  the  fact  that  he  is  himself  a  native  of  the  North 
Carolina  mountains.  After  portraying  the  one-roomed  cabin 
in  which  many  of  the  people  live,  the  scant  wardrobe  of 
men  and  women,  the  abstemious  diet  usually  in  vogue,  and 
the  various  resourceful  expedients  of  the  people  to  make 
meet  the  tongue  and  buckle  of  physical  life,  he  sums  up 
the  theme  by  saying:  "The  poverty  of  the  mountain  people 
is  naked,  but  high-minded  and  unashamed.  To  comment 
on  it,  as  I  have  done,  is  taken  as  an  impertinence.  This  is, 
in  a  way,  a  fine  trait,  though  rather  hard  on  a  descriptive 
writer,  whose  motives  are  ascribed  to  mere  vulgarity  and  a 
taste  for  scandal-mongering.  The  people,  of  course,  have 
no  ghost  of  an  idea  that  poverty  may  be  more  picturesque 
than  luxury" — or  that  a  portrayal  of  the  actual  conditions 
is  the  surest  way  to  awaken  the  good  people  beyond  the 
mountains  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  and  opportunity  to  aid. 

A  night  in  a  cabin  home.  With  a  friend,  after  a  tramp 
of  thirty  miles  from  railhead,  I  once  enjoyed  the  hospi- 
tality of  an  old  mountaineer.  The  log  cabin  was  a  com- 
fortable single  room,  eighteen  by  twenty  feet,  with  a 
door  on  the  front  and  back  sides,  but  without  windows. 
The  spring  was  sixty  steps  away.  Fifty  hives  of  bees  in  sec- 
tions of  hollow  logs  stood  around  the  apple  trees  on  the 


90  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

hill  back  of  and  above  the  house.  Our  reception  was  hearty 
and  our  entertainment  of  undoubted  cordiality.  Weary  from 
my  long  walk,  I  sat  and  watched  the  housewife  get  supper 
over  the  oak  fire  in  the  broad  chimney.  There  was  a 
"skillet,"  which  cooked  biscuit  and  then  cornbread.  There 
was  a  kettle  which  sang  and  sang,  and  a  frying  pan  in 
which  a  chicken  browned  appetizingly,  to  be  followed  by 
some  slices  of  ham,  which  fried  and  sizzled,  giving  oS  an 
odor  which  was  even  more  appetizing.  Above  the  table 
from  the  joists  hung  strings  of  red  pepper  and  onions 
and  various  empty  lard  buckets,  which  did  duty  for  water 
and  milk  and  other  things.  Then  came  supper,  to  get 
which  that  dear  mountain  matron  had  bent  up  and  down 
over  that  hearth  a  hundred  times  at  least.  Then,  after 
we  chatted  awhile,  a  pallet  was  made  down  behind  the 
table,  and  my  friend  and  I  were  told  it  was  for  us. 
The  elderly  man  and  his  wife  had  a  bed  in  one  corner 
and  a  married  daughter  and  her  child  in  another.  How 
did  we  disrobe  without  immodesty?  Well,  we  did  it,  and 
without  immodesty.  That  good  man  and  woman  had  lived 
in  their  cabin  for  forty  years  and  reared  a  family,  now 
grown  men  and  women  with  homes  of  their  own.  Like 
most  ministers  in  the  South,  I  have  enjoyed  sweet  and  gen- 
erous hospitality  in  many  a  home,  but  never  any  of  kinder 
spirit  or  finer  quaHty  than  did  Col.  Frank  Bailey,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  myself,  the  night  we  slept  together  on  a  pallet 
in  that  Southern  highlander's  cabin.  Mr.  Kephart's  phrase 
deserves  to  become  fixed  in  the  public  mind,  as  a  badge  of 
the  mountaineer's  honor:  The  poverty  of  this  people  is 
naked,  but  high-minded  and  unashamed!  It  is  the  poverty, 
not  of  "poor  whites,"  but  of  a  people  of  patrician  spirit, 
like  that  of  the  ragged  but  lofty  chiefs  and  clansmen  of 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  91 

old  Scotland,  from  whom  the  mountaineers  are  lineal  de- 
scendants. 

Religious  faith.  The  last  available  estimate  of  the  re- 
ligious membership  in  the  Southern  highlands  is  that  of 
the  Religious  Census  of  1906.  This  includes  the  mountain 
sections  of  the  seven  Southeastern  States  in  which  Southern 
Baptists  maintain  mission  schools.  The  total  religious  mem- 
bership is  973,000.  Of  this  number  463,200,  or  forty- 
eight  percent,  are  Baptists;  304,900,  thirty-one  percent,  are 
Methodists;  56,400,  or  six  percent,  are  Presbyterians; 
48,900,  or  five  percent,  are  Disciples.  All  other  classes 
have  ten  percent.  If  the  Alabama  mining  region  and  Chat- 
tanooga be  counted  out,  there  are  only  3,000  Romanists 
in  the  entire  region.  These  are  in  towns  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  practically  all  of  them  are  importations.  The 
Episcopalians  number  only  6,700  in  this  mountain  empire. 
Of  the  1  78  mountain  counties,  1 43  have  not  a  single  Cath- 
olic and  107  not  a  single  Episcopalian.  In  the  mountain 
counties  of  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia 
Baptists  outnumber  all  other  religious  bodies  combined, 
while  they  are  almost  as  numerous  as  all  others  in  highland 
Tennessee  and  Alabama.  Methodists  are  more  numerous 
than  Baptists  in  one  mountain  district,  that  of  Southwest 
Virginia,  where  they  number  45,600  and  Baptists  35,800. 
The  Scotch-Irish  who  settled  in  the  highlands  were  mainly 
of  Presbyterian  lineage,  but  for  the  most  part  they  became 
Baptists  long  ago.  Various  reasons  have  been  given  for 
the  change.  In  the  first  place,  they  were  not  all  Presby- 
terians. Following  the  Battle  of  Alamance  in  North  Caro- 
lina, ten  years  before  the  Revolutionary  War,  was  a  great 
religious  movement  to  the  mountains  from  Sandy  Creek 
Baptist  Association.     Records  are  also  extant  of  itinerant 


92  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Ccimpaigns  through  the  highland  country  of  early  Baptist 
preachers  of  power  and  holy  passion.  From  such  influences 
and  from  the  comparative  lack  of  adaptation  of  the  Pres^ 
byterian  ministerial  system  to  the  exigencies  of  frontier 
needs,  it  came  about  that  the  highlanders  remained  Calvin- 
ists,  but  accepted  the  Baptist  democracy  and  teaching  as 
to  the  ordinances. 

Preachers  and  churches.  The  churches  are  the  only  co- 
operative institutions  which  are  found  generally  throughout 
the  highlands.  There  are  schools,  and  their  number  is  in- 
creasing, but  these  are  said  to  be  only  about  one-fifth  as 
numerous  as  the  churches.  Outside  of  the  railway  towns, 
practically  all  the  highland  churches  are  of  the  once-a- 
month  variety  and  are  served  by  absentee  preachers.  These 
preachers  are  men  of  piety,  and  some  of  them  of  com- 
manding personal  force.  But  they  are  uneducated.  The 
ignorance  of  some  of  them  is  pitiable,  while  others  are 
not  ignorant,  though  uneducated.  Few  of  them  are  pro- 
gressive, and  some  are  still  prejudiced  against  education 
as  a  thing  of  pride  and  ungodliness — which,  alas!  it  often 
is  when  not  consecrated  to  worthy  service.  In  many 
remote  sections  the  preachers  in  speaking  still  affect  the 
sing-song  cadences  of  what  has  been  irreverently  dubbed 
the  "holy  whine,"  This  rhythmic  intonation  is  pleasant  to 
the  ear,  and  many  of  the  older  mountain  church  members 
regard  this  method  of  delivery  by  the  preacher  as  a  hall- 
mark of  downright  earnestness  and  humility.  A  mountain 
woman  who  had  been  brought  up  under  the  recurrent  ser- 
monic  "a-ahs"  of  old  Brother  Jones,  after  hearing  Dr.  John 
A.  Broadus,  who  was  reckoned  the  foremost  American  Bap- 
tist preacher  of  his  day,  remarked:  "I'd  ruther  hear 
Brother  Jones  line  out  one  verse  of  a  hime,  than  to  hear 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  93 

that  thar  man  preach  a  whole  sarmont."  The  church 
buildings  are  almost  always  either  of  unceiled  plank  con- 
struction or  of  rough  logs,  in  either  case  the  building 
being  an  unrelieved  rectangle.  Usually  the  doors  are  left 
unfastened  throughout  the  month,  and  not  seldom  they 
stand  ajar,  oddly  emphasizing  to  the  chance  passer-by  the 
solitude  and  mystery  of  the  encompassing  forests.  Of  the 
leadership  of  these  churches,  Dr.  John  E.  White,  whose 
chapter  on  the  Southern  highlands  in  the  book,  "The 
Home  Mission  Task,"  is  the  best  interpretation  I  have 
seen  of  the  mountaineer's  needs,  writes:  "Religious  lead- 
ership is  practically  confined  to  the  preachers,  of  whom 
there  are  a  great  many — indeed,  very  many  more  preach- 
ers than  there  are  churches.  This  fact  has  not  always 
contributed  to  the  peace  of  Zion,  and  still  less  to  the  peace 
of  the  preachers.  The  most  difficult  feature  of  the  moun- 
tain problem  is  connected  with  the  churches  and  the 
preachers.  In  their  present  state  of  development  the 
churches  do  not  want  and  will  not  support  better  preachers. 
The  preachers  in  turn,  in  their  present  state  of  development, 
will  not  give  the  mountain  people  better  churches.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  the  religious  problem  waits  upon  the 
educational  problem.  The  school  must  blaze  the  way  and 
create  the  necessity  for  an  improved  religious  and  church 
life."  Under  the  old  system,  declares  Dr.  White,  "each 
pioneer  pressed  upon  the  heels  of  the  other,  and  except  in 
the  few  favored  valleys  in  touch  with  the  outside  world, 
the  mountaineers  were  standing  stock  still  or  moved  in  the 
endless  circle  which  led  nowhere."  It  is  not  a  flattering 
picture,  but  a  true  one,  and  by  a  leader  who  has  for  years 
been  one  of  the  most  influential  and  helpful  friends  in 
America  of  the  Southern  highlanders. 


94  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Mountain  youth  want  to  learn.  No  interpretation  of  the 
conservatism  and  isolation  of  the  mountain  people  can 
stand,  which  does  not  make  room  for  the  anxious  readiness 
of  the  mountain  boys  and  girls  to  profit  by  the  schools 
which  have  been  provided  for  them.  Inspiring  stories 
abound,  showing  the  positive  hunger  of  hundreds  of  the 
young  hillsfolk  for  an  education,  and  of  the  self-denial  they 
are  willing  to  practice  to  secure  it.  The  applications  for 
an  opportunity  to  pay  for  tuition  and  board  by  work  are 
always  greater  than  the  schools  can  provide  for.  The  girls 
gladly  cook  and  serve  and  the  boys  do  chores  or  work  on 
a  farm,  if  this  will  help  to  open  the  door  to  knowledge. 
Some  of  the  parents  seem  indifferent  to  the  opportunities 
the  schools  will  afford  for  their  children,  but  many  are  not. 
More  and  more  they  are  coming  to  stand  for  the  schools 
which  are  to  give  their  children  a  better  chance  than  they 
had.  It  is  a  fact  that  every  one  of  the  thirty-seven  mountain 
schools  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  has  been  inaugurated 
and  is  maintained  by  the  active  cooperation  of  the  moun- 
tain people  themselves,  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why 
the  success  of  these  schools  has  been  so  exceptional.  There 
is  a  prophecy  in  the  hunger  of  mountain  youth  for  an  edu- 
cation, which  I  may  indicate  by  a  brief  story.  Dr.  White 
and  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  were  journeying  together  among 
the  mountains.  Said  Dr.  White:  "It  almost  breaks  my 
heart  to  see  so  many  boys  and  girls  here  in  the  mountains 
who  are  fairly  famishing  with  the  hunger  for  an  opportunity 
to  get  to  go  to  school,  but  who  cannot  get  it."  Dr.  Curry 
replied:  "That  is  nothing  to  break  your  heart  over.  The 
thing  that  almost  breaks  my  heart  is  to  find  outside  the 
mountains  so  many  boys  and  girls  who  are  not  hungry  for 
the   opportunities   in   education   which   are   lavished   upon 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  95 

them."  It  is  the  prophecy  of  a  time  when  these  young 
dreamers  of  the  hills  shall  be  doing  far  more  than  their 
share  to  perform  for  society  everywhere  the  tasks  of  fash- 
ioning the  mind  and  spirit  to  higher  and  nobler  ends  than 
merely  the  material  prizes  of  life.  Little  as  the  South  may 
realize  it,  it  has  no  latent  human  resources  more  full  of 
promise  for  the  future  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  red  blood, 
the  un jaded  nerves  and  unspoiled  souls  of  the  youth  of 
our  highland  country. 

As  to  leadership.  One  of  the  reasons  why  cooperative  ef- 
fort is  the  best  way  of  establishing  and  maintaining  Chris- 
tian mission  schools  for  the  mountain  people,  is  that  the  iso- 
lation of  pioneer  life  has  afforded  almost  no  training  in  co- 
operative community  effort,  and  therefore  no  opportunity 
for  the  highland  people  to  develop  a  broad  leadership  of 
their  own.  They  have  fine  latent  qualities  for  leadership, 
but  they  are  undeveloped.  A  prime  necessity  is  some 
method  which  shall  put  leaders  from  without  at  the  service 
of  these  people,  for  the  purpose  of  training  a  native  leader- 
ship of  their  own.  The  mission  schools  are  admirably 
adapted  to  this,  though  there  has  doubtless  been  some 
ground  for  the  criticism  that  too  many  of  the  young  men 
and  women  go  into  life  and  service  beyond  the  mountains, 
and  too  few  see  the  immense  moral  significance  of  a  life 
spent  in  leading  the  people  of  their  native  hills  into  better 
and  higher  living.  It  will  be  a  poor  performance  for  these 
schools,  if  they  shall  exploit  the  mountain  people  for  a  lead- 
ership for  service  beyond,  like  modern  denominational 
life  has  exploited  the  country  church  as  a  recruiting 
ground  for  men  and  women  for  city  pulpits  and  pews  and 
social  tasks.  The  mountains  ought  to  send  out  of  their 
trained  youth  for  the  high  and  worthy  tasks  of  society.   But 


96  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

first  and  chiefest  emphasis  must  be  placed  on  their  de- 
veloping a  leadership  with  vision  and  force  enough  to  do 
the  tasks  so  urgently  needed  for  their  own  people.  Not 
enough  emphasis  has  been  placed  here.  The  future  of 
Appalachia  lies  mostly  in  the  hands  of  those  resolute  native 
boys  and  girls  who  shall  win  an  education  fitting  them  for 
this  leadership. 

A  vast  resenroir  ef  unclaimed  idealism.  The  mountain 
school  system  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  has  been  in  op- 
eration less  than  twenty  years,  but  that  period  has  been 
sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  latent  in  the  average  highland 
boy  and  girl  lie  rich  stores  of  unsuspected  idealism.  Also 
that  when  the  dreamer  awakens,  he  is  exceptionally  well 
equipped  with  the  personal  force  wherewith  to  coin  his 
dreams  into  concrete  realities  of  high  service.  Our  Bap- 
tist system  of  schools,  according  to  a  survey  made  two 
years  since,  has  sent  out  350  preachers,  200  lawyers, 
225  doctors,  thirty  trained  nurses,  thirty  missionaries  and 
2,500  school  teachers.  3,000  have  returned  to  the  farms, 
900  are  merchants,  forty  are  bankers  and  eighteen 
have  become  State  legislators.  Observe  how  large  is 
the  number  who  chose  a  calling  that  looks  primarily  to 
the  service  of  society  rather  than  to  personal  gain  and  com- 
fort. More  preachers  and  teachers  are  coming  from  these 
schools  than  from  any  other  schools  of  equal  grade  and 
attendance.  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  Mountain  youth 
live  near  nature  and  where  the  heart  more  easily  hears  the 
voice  of  God.  Inured  to  near-want,  and  reared  to  respect 
a  man  for  what  he  is,  instead  of  what  he  has,  it  is  not  hard 
for  them,  under  the  leadership  of  high-thinking  and  devout 
teachers,  to  see  that  the  life  that  really  counts  for  most  is 
the  life  that  helps  most,  instead  of  getting  most  for  its  own 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  97 

gratification.  And  herein  are  the  beauty  and  the  glory  of 
the  fruits  of  our  highland  schools,  which,  in  a  day  that  is 
becoming  more  mad  all  the  while  in  pursuit  of  material 
prizes,  still  come  forth  from  the  modest  and  unpretending 
life  of  the  highlands  to  admonish  men  that  there  is  some- 
thing  of  immeasurably  higher  value. 

Our  system  of  schools.  This  chapter  will  not  deal  in 
detail  with  the  great  system  of  schools  through  which 
Southern  Baptists  are  seeking  to  aid  their  brothers  of  the 
highlands.  For  the  present  purpose  it  will  suffice  to  say 
there  are  thirty-seven  of  these  schools,  three  being  in 
the  Ozarks.  There  are  200  teachers,  a  student  body  of 
about  6,000,  and  a  property  valued  at  about  $700,000.  At 
the  head  of  this  system  is  a  man  who  in  his  own  person 
is  by  far  the  most  valuable  single  asset  of  this  great  system. 
Dr.  Albert  E.  Brown,  of  Asheville,  North  Carolina,  Super- 
intendent of  the  Home  Board's  schools,  himself  a  native 
Highlander.  The  skill  and  wisdom  with  which  Dr.  Brown  has 
for  years  conducted  this  difficult  work  and  directed  the  chan- 
nels of  its  expansion  are  beyond  praise,  and  have  won  for 
him  the  unqualified  confidence  of  the  Home  Mission  Board 
and  of  all  who  have  observed  the  schools  and  their  work. 
Other  denominations  besides  ours  are  also  doing  a  fine 
work  in  mountain  schools.  The  Presbyterians,  both  North 
and  South,  have  been  particularly  active  in  this  field,  and 
the  work  of  the  Southern  Presbyterians  is  at  present  grow- 
ing. Methodists  of  the  South  are  also  conducting  some 
schools,  and  Northern  Methodists  a  few.  Some  other  re- 
ligious bodies  conduct  schools,  and  certain  other  highland 
schools  are  supported  by  non-religious  organizations.  The 
Southern  Baptist  system  is  reaching  a  larger  number  of 
the  people  than  any  other  agency,  and,  by  common  con- 


98  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

sent,  is  not  surpassed,  if  indeed  it  is  equalled,  in  its  adapted- 
ness  to  the  needs. 

Value  of  schools  to  the  moontain  people.  What  of  the 
value  of  these  institutions  to  the  life  of  the  highland  coun- 
try itself?  As  the  system  has  hardly  been  in  general  opera- 
tion more  than  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  as  social  growth  is 
necessarily  slow,  it  is  too  early  to  take  stock  with  the  ex- 
pectation of  exhibiting  the  full  fruition  of  the  work.  The 
thousands  who  have  returned  from  the  schools  to  their 
homes  are  the  least  conspicuous,  but  perhaps  the  most  sig- 
nificant, contribution  of  these  schools  to  the  general  weal. 
If  there  is  an  exception,  it  is  in  the  2,500  young  people 
who  from  the  schools  have  gone  into  the  teaching  pro- 
fession, most  of  them  in  their  own  mountain  country.  The 
contribution  of  preachers  and  others  to  service  away  from 
the  mountains  has  been  invaluable.  But  I  cannot  bring 
myself  to  rank  even  this  great  service  above  the  direct  con- 
tribution of  the  schools  to  those  ends  for  which  they  were 
primarily  established  and  for  which  they  are  still  being  pri- 
marily maintained.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  give  a  chance  to 
youth  hungry  for  improvement;  it  is  a  greater  to  train 
these  youth  to  give  their  lives  to  the  uplift  of  the  disadvan- 
taged people  of  their  own  highland  country.  This  service 
promises  less  ephemeral  repute  in  the  mouths  of  men,  but 
it  is  vital  with  the  spirit  of  service  which  Jesus  taught. 
Most  of  the  young  people  have  gone  back  to  their  homes, 
and  the  notable  progress  of  the  churches  and  of  prohibi- 
tion sentiment  in  sections  near  the  schools  testify  that  their 
influence  is  already  being  felt  for  social  betterment,  as  do 
also  the  improvements  which  are  being  noted  in  many 
mountain  homes. 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  99 

Tlie  Story  of  a  "forloni  joke."  Yancey  Collegiate  In- 
stitute, at  Burnsville,  North  Carolina,  is  typical  of  the 
mountain  schools  of  the  Home  Mission  Board.  Even  a  brief 
story  of  it  will  be  instructive.  Superintendent  Albert  E. 
Brown,  in  making  the  first  survey  of  the  highland  country 
for  school  locations,  came  to  Yancey  County.  There  were 
many  people  and  they  were  poor,  but  they  wanted  a  school. 
For  years  they  had  talked  about  and  tried  to  start  a  school, 
but  nothing  came  of  it.  Their  hearts  were  right,  but  they 
were  unaccustomed  to  co-operative  community  action.  The 
superintendent  talked  it  over  with  them.  He  found  them 
dazed;  the  elusive  school  had  become  a  kind  of  forlorn 
joke  among  the  people.  When  Dr.  Brown  confided  to  a 
leading  Asheville  physician,  who  came  from  Yancey,  that 
he  was  going  to  raise  $3,000  in  that  county  to  start  a 
Christian  school,  that  gentleman  laughed  incredulously  and 
told  him  that  the  only  way  he  would  ever  get  $3,000  in 
Yancey  County  to  build  a  school  would  be  to  start  "wild 
cat  stills."  At  Burnsville  was  Mr.  E.  F.  Watson,  a  young 
lawyer  whom  Superintendent  Brown  had  once  taught. 
Through  him  Dr.  Brown  got  in  touch  with  the  responsible 
leaders.  A  campaign  was  launched  and  every  church  in 
the  county  canvassed  for  that  nest-egg  of  $3,000.  The 
people  were  skeptical  about  it  and  defeat  was  predicted  on 
every  side.  Within  a  week,  speaking  an  average  of  two 
or  three  times  daily.  Dr.  Brown  had  secured  half  the 
amount.  Within  two  weeks,  enough  was  secured  to  erect 
a  five-room  building.  The  croakers  quit  saying,  "You  can't 
do  it."  They  now  said,  "You  may  build  a  house,  but  you 
can't  run  a  school."  Heroic  giving  characterized  the  cam- 
paign. Men  without  a  dollar  gave  a  cow  or  a  colt  or  a 
calf.     Women,  who  had  never  seen  a  school  such  -as  was 


100  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

contemplated,  gave  wool  or  chickens.  Children  picked  up 
chestnuts  or  gathered  medicinal  herbs  so  they  might  give  to 
the  school.  Such  men  as  E.  F.  Watson,  Ben  Riddle,  Wes 
Banks  and  Jake  Sams  backed  up  the  superintendent  with 
credit  and  help.  The  building  was  erected.  On  a  small 
scale  the  school  was  started.  There  were  still  discourage- 
ments. But  God  blessed  those  good  people  in  their  heroic 
effort  to  go  forward. 

The  rich  fruition.  They  pressed  on  from  that  small  be- 
ginning. Prosperity  came.  To-day  the  school  plant  at 
Yancey  Institute  is  worth  $50,000.  The  Southern  Baptist 
women  contributed  $5,000  through  the  W.  M.  U.  to  erect 
and  administration  building  in  honor  of  Miss  Annie  Arm- 
strong. The  people  gave  $5,000  more.  The  administra- 
tion building  of  the  school  is  a  credit  to  the  whole  high- 
land region.  There  are  now  two  dormitories  for  boys.  One 
of  these  is  so  provided  that  the  mother  or  some  other 
member  of  the  family  can  come  with  the  boys  and  cook 
for  them,  in  order  to  economize.  The  results  cannot  be 
detailed  here  of  the  good  work  of  Yancey  Institute.  But 
they  include  a  public  school  system  in  that  section  with  far 
more  capable  teachers  than  formerly,  better  churches  and 
church  buildings  and  a  demand  for  trained  preachers,  bet- 
ter homes,  better  living  and  many  young  people  who  have 
gone  into  the  service  of  society  in  regions  beyond.  And 
the  end  is  not  yet;  the  work  of  Yancey  Institute  is  only 
well  begun.  The  courage,  faith  and  devotion  of  Superin- 
tendent Brown,  the  devotion  and  consecrated  determina- 
tion of  E.  F.  Watson,  a  manly  Christian  lawyer,  deserve  to 
be  treasured  in  the  history  of  that  section  as  being  central 
among  the  forces  that  turned  its  face  toward  God  and  out- 
ward toward  the  service  of  the  needs  of  humankind. 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  101 

Aiding  a  people  to  find  thenuelyes.  Fundamentally  the 
largest  service  the  highland  mission  schools  can  render  is 
to  aid  this  great  section  of  our  people  to  find  themselves  in 
their  twentieth  century  environment.  That  environment  is 
quick  with  nervous  haste  and  material  improvement.  Al' 
ready  it  has  shown  that  it  will  not  even  let  the  highlander 
alone  in  his  quaint  eighteenth  century  quiet.  Defying  the 
mountain  walls,  it  is  thrusting  forward  one  railway  after 
another  into  the  very  heart  of  the  highlands.  Ridges,  peaks 
and  coves,  and  the  serpentine  valleys  and  streams,  have 
been  unable  to  preserve  the  secret  places  of  the  skyland 
from  the  invasion  of  commercialism.  The  conquering  out- 
lander  is  after  the  wealth  of  coal  and  timber  in  the  moun- 
taineer's home  country.  With  him  the  invader  brings  a 
new  economic  system,  which  promptly  proceeds  to  tear  up 
root  and  branch  the  whole  ordered  system  of  the  high- 
lander's  life.  Before  this  onslaught  the  people  find  them- 
selves under  the  necessity  of  readjusting  their  lives.  To 
this  end  their  crying  need  is  a  competent  and  trustworthy 
leadership  of  their  own.  This  they  cannot  hope  to  find  in 
untaught  preachers  who  journey  once  a  month  to  preach 
at  the  little  mountain  church.  Where  may  they  hope  to 
find  it?  The  States  which  touch  Appalachia  are  doing 
better,  but  still  far  too  little,  toward  educating  the  highland 
people.  Far  and  away  the  most  hopeful  and  promising  sem- 
inaries for  training  the  needed  leadership  are  in  the  mission 
schools  in  the  highland  country.  This  training  will  assur- 
edly make  for  a  more  vital  church  and  religious  life.  More 
and  more,  as  the  young  preachers  from  these  schools  sense 
the  heroic  quality  of  the  service,  there  will  also  be  a  direct 
impact  from  the  schools  on  the  efficiency  of  the  churches  in 
serving  their  communities.  Already  great  good  has  been  ac- 


102        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

complished  by  the  admirable  Bible  teaching  in  the  schools 
and  the  training  for  church  service. 

As  to  vocational  training.  Vocational  training  is  being 
tried  out  in  various  schools  in  the  mountains.  In  our  own 
Baptist  schools  beginnings  of  this  kind  have  been  made. 
Two  of  them  have  farms  where  lads  are  instructed  in  soils 
and  in  plant  culture.  Elsewhere  the  young  women  are 
getting  some  training  in  home  making  and  in  handicraft. 
At  present  Superintendent  Brown  is  investigating  the  prac- 
ticability of  establishing  a  model  country  home  at  each 
school,  in  which  the  girls  in  relays  shall  have  some  weeks 
of  training  in  actual  home  making.  This  promises  to  be 
of  conspicuous  value,  for  one  of  the  least  inviting  things 
about  mountain  life  has  been  the  undue  burdens  and  hard- 
ships borne  by  the  women.  It  is  eminently  desirable  that 
the  schools  shall  by  actual  teaching  and  demonstration 
point  the  way  to  better  conditions.  All  practicable  effort 
should  be  put  forth  to  enlarge  the  vocational  element  in 
the  mountain  schools.  If  some  outlanders  are  suffering 
because  they  cannot  see  the  value  of  anything  which  cannot 
be  coined  into  money,  many  mountain  people  are  suffering 
because  they  live  so  near  the  edge  of  actual  poverty  that 
they  are  without  the  means  to  set  up  the  best  material  con- 
ditions for  wholesome  living.  Economic  improvement  must 
go  hand  in  hand  with  the  enlargement  of  the  mental  and 
moral  outlook.  It  would  be  well  if  there  was  at  least  some 
capable  elementary  training  in  farming  and  stock-raising  in 
many  of  the  schools.  We  are  beginning  to  see  that  voca- 
tional training  may  be  over-emphasized,  but  there  is  no 
danger  of  over-doing  it  in  the  highland  country  for  some 
time  to  come.    There  is  a  crying  need  for  more  of  it. 


SOME  NEGLECTED  AMERICANS  103 

Tbe  Ozarics.  The  Ozark  Mountains  are  in  Arkansas, 
Missouri  and  Oklahoma.  They  are  not  so  high  as  the 
Southern  Appalachians,  but  are  about  one-third  as  exten- 
sive, and  have  about  1,500,000  inhabitants,  practically  all 
white,  and  most  of  them  Baptists  in  religious  faith.  In 
general,  their  lives  are  conditioned  like  those  of  the  Ap- 
palachian highlanders,  and  they  exhibit  many  of  the  same 
qualities.  They  have  suffered  from  neglect  and  from  the 
remoteness  of  their  country  from  the  cross-currents  of  hu- 
mankind. Like  their  highland  cousins  to  the  east,  they 
have  lacked  for  schools,  for  a  vital  church  life,  and  for 
leadership.  They  have  in  not  a  few  instances  been  without 
even  a  rudimentary  provision  for  religious  services.  A  few 
years  since,  on  a  Sunday  evening  at  sunset,  Dr.  John  T. 
Christian,  then  the  Secretary  of  Missions  in  Arkansas,  found 
himself  in  a  little  mountain  hamlet,  far  from  the  railroad. 
There  was  no  church  in  the  place  and  the  people  were 
gathered  in  groups,  loafing  the  time  away.  He  found  a 
stump  for  a  pulpit,  and  began  to  sing.  The  crowd  gath- 
ered and  he  preached.  They  besought  him  to  stay  and 
preach  throughout  their  section,  much  of  which  they  said 
was  entirely  without  provision  for  religious  service.  Near 
this  same  place,  but  five  miles  from  any  church,  the  Secre- 
tary established  a  Sunday-school  out  in  the  open,  which 
was  soon  attended  by  150,  most  of  them  grown.  In  the 
Arkansas  Ozarks  the  Home  Mission  Board  is  now  aiding 
two  schools  for  highlander  youth,  and  in  the  Missouri 
Ozarks  one.  It  is  the  beginning  of  a  fine  educational 
service  for  the  Ozark  mountain  people,  which  may  be  ex- 
pected to  grow  in  influence  and  usefulness. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Give  a  survey  of  the  chief  groups  in  the  South  of  neglected 
native  population. 

2.  Describe  the  Southern  Appalachian  mountain  country. 

3.  Describe   the   quaintness   and  sensitive   independence   of  the 
highlander  people. 

4.  Tell  of  his  isolation  and  how  he  has  learned  to  do  without 
that  which  his  own  labor  does  not  secure. 

5.  Give  an  estimate  of  his  religious  faith,  his  preachers  and  his 
churches. 

6.  Tell  of  the  lack  of  leadership,  and  the  hunger  of  the  young 
people  for  an  education. 

7.  Show  how  the  Mission  Schools  supply  the  needs  of  the  high- 
landers. 

8.  Give  the  story  of  a  typical  mountain  school. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE. 

An  urgent  need.  In  these  times,  every  step  we  take 
seems  to  be  dogged  by  new  imperatives.  In  very  weari- 
ness we  resent  the  proposition  to  present  a  new  problem. 
The  pressure  of  life  gives  us  a  vivid  understanding  of  the 
emotions  which  once  drove  men  and  women  into  monas- 
teries and  convents.  My  reluctance  is  the  greater  to  invite 
the  reader's  thought  to  this  subject,  when  I  consider  the 
impossibility  of  setting  forth  in  the  allotted  space,  even  if 
I  adequately  understood,  the  ins  and  outs  of  the  great 
theme,  Man,  Money  and  God.  Perhaps  a  similar  shrinking 
accounts  for  the  small  amount  of  preaching  and  writing 
on  this  subject.  Yet  a  dazed  silence  affords  no  competent 
method  for  meeting  the  phenomena  of  the  most  rapid  in- 
crease of  wealth  in  history,  in  the  wealthiest  nation  of 
the  world.  In  1892,  I  heard  Dr.  T.  T.  Eaton,  before  the 
student  body  of  the  Baptist  Theological  Seminary  at  Louis- 
ville, prophesy  that  the  conflict  of  sin  and  righteousness 
would  soon  settle  down  to  an  outright  grapple  between 
God  and  Mammon.  I  pondered  his  words  and  wondered. 
I  am  wondering  still,  for  what  has  happened  is  more  stag- 
gering than  even  the  keen  mind  of  Dr.  Eaton  could  well 
have  conceived. 

Ammca's  fabulons  wealth.  The  mind  grows  tired  try- 
ing to  grasp  the  significance  of  the  figures  which  set  forth 
the  wealth  of  America.  A  single  billion  of  dollars  is  almost 
an  incomprehensible  sum.  It  amounts  to  $16.50  for  every 
hour  from  the  birth  of  Christ  to  the  year  of  grace  1917. 


106        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

From  1 870  to  1 900  the  wealth  of  America  increased  almost 
two  billions  annually.  From  1900  to  1904  it  increased 
five  billions  annually.  In  1912  our  national  wealth  totalled 
$187,000,000,000.  In  a  meeting  of  bankers  and  financiers 
in  Atlanta,  in  December,  1917,  it  was  asserted  that  the 
national  wealth  totalled  not  less  than  $250,000,000,000, 
while  some  of  those  present  estimated  it  to  be  fifty  billions 
more  than  that.  If  we  accept  the  lesser  amount,  our  na- 
tional wealth  has  increased  more  than  twelve  billions  annu- 
ally for  the  past  five  years,  and  our  present  per  capita 
wealth  is  about  $2,500.  The  above  equals  the  total  com- 
bined wealth  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  France,  Germany 
and  Russia,  by  the  last  available  figures.  The  income  from 
our  farms,  in  1917,  was  $21,000,000,000,  and  from  mining 
and  industry  considerably  more.  In  the  effort  to  visualize 
the  meaning  of  these  figures,  the  mind  sinks  exhausted.  The 
splendor  and  richness  conjured  by  the  luxuriant  imagina- 
tion of  the  author  of  "Arabian  Nights"  pales  into  com- 
monplaceness  before  such  inconceivable  totals. 

The  Soath's  ordeal  of  plenty.  The  South  has  shared  in 
these  increases.  Starting  from  a  condition  of  artificial  but 
actual  want,  after  the  Civil  War,  and  making  small  relative 
progress  for  twenty-five  years,  the  rate  of  increase  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years  has  been  striking  and  phenomenal. 
In  1917,  our  cotton  crop  was  valued  at  two  billions,  and 
the  value  of  all  agricultural  product  was  more  than  six 
billions,  while  our  mines  and  industries  produced  more  than 
five  billions.  These  amounts  combined,  eliminating  other 
sources  of  income,  represent  an  average  of  more  than  $300 
for  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  South.  Our  agri- 
cultural products  were  worth  more  than  those  of  the  entire 
nation  in  1912,  and  our  manufactures  almost  as  much  as 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  107 

those  of  the  nation  in  1900.  What  do  these  incomprehen- 
sible figures  mean  concretely?  It  would  take  a  book  to 
tell  in  actual  detail.  During  the  Christmas  holidays,  in 
\917,  I  made  a  visit  to  the  old  home  place  of  my  child- 
hood. Turning  my  back  on  numerous  automobiles  to  be 
had  on  call  from  kinsmen  and  friends,  I  walked  with  my 
nephew  from  the  city  of  Anderson,  South  Carolina,  out 
along  the  road,  to  see  my  dear  old  uncle,  who  alone  of  all 
those  who  made  the  environment  of  my  childhood  still 
remained  in  his  home  near  that  in  which  I  first  saw  the 
light.  We  followed  the  old  road,  now  a  "national  high- 
way." The  hills  had  disappeared  from  the  road;  the 
streams  were  bridged;  the  mud  holes  had  dried  up.  We 
swung  along  on  a  smooth  highway,  standing  asi<4e  now  and 
then  to  allow  a  careering  automobile  to  pass.  Nineteen 
•vehicles  passed  us  on  three  miles  of  the  highway.  One  was 
a  horse-drawn  carriage  and  contained  Negroes,  eighteen 
were  automobiles,  only  three  of  them  being  inexpensive.  In 
ten  of  them  were  whites,  and  in  eight  Negroes.  Most 
of  these  people  were  farmers.  On  the  return  tramp,  the 
darkness  of  a  winter  evening  was  closing  in,  and  the  auto- 
mobiles were  too  numerous  to  count  of  the  country  people 
returning  from  town  with  the  Christmas  presents  for  their 
children.  Those  people  owned  their  machines-  Most  of 
the  Negroes  had  new  machines,  the  speedy  reaction  of 
the  black  to  the  opportunity  afforded  by  thirty-cent  cot- 
ton. It  was  only  an  instance  of  the  tendency  of  the  Negro 
to  imitate  the  white  man,  whose  speed  and  greed  for  the 
good  which  money  can  buy  has  been  so  startling. 

The  poignancy  of  plenty.  If  one  dares  to  say  that  there 
is  a  pathos  in  our  platform  of  wealth,  it  is  not  that  he  hopes 
to  catch  the  popular  ear.    To  many  his  words  will  sound 


108       THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

as  the  insulated  utterance  of  a  fireside  oracle,  whom  age 
or  illness  has  kept  from  actual  contact  with  the  currents  of 
life.  And  yet  one  must  endeavor  to  speak  the  truth,  and 
trust  that  God  shall  cause  it  to  fructify.  Let  the  reader 
think  of  the  time  of  our  post-bellum  poverty,  when  the 
South's  manhood  rose  superior  to  her  adversities.  We  pray- 
ed God  for  temporal  blessings  that  we  might  serve  him 
therewith.  A  dominant  and  conquering  North  had  no  great 
opinion  of  us.  Our  poverty  was  patronized  by  the  duU- 
souled  many  of  other  sections,  who  looked  not  upon  the  in- 
ner  life  of  the  people,  but  upon  the  outward.  This  unkind 
spirit  of  some  who  observed  was  blessed  of  God  to  the 
South's  good.  The  people  of  this  section  bore  their  bur- 
dens, humbled  their  souls  before  God,  and  developed  a 
gentleness  of  spirit  which  was  worth  more  than  all  the 
billions  we  have  now  gained.  Then  heaven's  windows 
opened.  On  a  people  chastened  and  refined  by  suffering 
was  poured  out  wealth  of  which  they  had  never  dreamed. 
Wealth  is  a  temptation  and  a  responsibility.  If  we  really 
had  all  the  greatness  of  soul  we  believed  we  had,  we  would 
be  able  to  show  it  by  using  our  wealth  for  service,  instead 
of  spending  it  for  power  and  pleasure.  And  here  lies  the 
poignancy  of  our  plenty.  0,  merciful  God,  are  we  so 
weak,  so  dull  of  heart,  so  greedy  of  pleasure,  that  we  shall 
forget  thee,  just  so  soon  as  thou  dost  remove  from  us  the 
chastisements  of  the  days  of  stress  and  want!  If  we  are, 
our  boasting  is  made  void  of  the  holy  idealism  and  spiritual 
insight  which  we  have  claimed. 

The  temptation  of  wealtL  The  rate  of  the  increase  of 
our  wealth  is  fabulous  and  intoxicating.  It  is  as  if  God 
had  determined  to  test  man,  whether  it  is  ever  possible  to 
satisfy  his  heart  by  putting  into  his  hands  untold  material 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  109 

values.  God  has  said  that  the  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  a  man  possesseth,  and  that  the 
possession  of  the  whole  world  would  be  a  loss  if  it  should 
cost  him  his  soul.  He  has  declared  that  a  man  can  not 
serve  God  and  Mammon.  Line  upon  line,  precept  upon 
precept,  he  has  warned  man  of  the  folly  of  being  dominated 
by  things.  All  we  have  we  hold  as  the  stewards  of  his 
bounty.  If  this  age  shall  sell  its  soul  to  Mammon,  it  can 
only  do  it  by  stubbornly  taking  the  bit  in  its  teeth  and 
rushing  blindly  on,  ignoring  God's  warning  that  the  road 
leads  over  a  precipice.  Jesus  said:  "It  is  easier  for  a 
camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  it  is  for  a 
rich  man  to  enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  His  disciples 
were  amazed  at  his  teaching.  It  is  evident  that  his  warn- 
ing was  against  the  love  of  money  and  not  its  possession. 
The  poor  man  who  worships  a  single  dollar  is  as  much  in 
danger  as  the  rich  who  worships  a  million.  But  he  is  less 
likely  to  worship  the  dollar.  "They  that  will  be  rich  fall 
into  temptation."  Jesus  pronounced  woe  upon  those  who 
trust  in  their  riches.  In  the  parable  of  the  rich  fool  he 
shows  what  it  is  in  riches  that  destroys  the  soul.  He  set 
forth  that  he  came  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor.  If 
fat-heartedness  possessed  men  who  have  wealth,  Jesus 
would  find  in  the  outcast  and  the  lame  and  blind  guests  for 
the  feast.  If  this  seems  a  hard  doctrine  to  the  prosperous, 
it  is  yet  no  harder  than  that  which  we  preach  to  all  men. 
The  price  of  peace  with  God  is  that  we  shall  give  ourselves 
and  our  all  to  God,  forsaking  every  hindering  thing. 
Heaven  is  for  the  poor  in  spirit,  whether  a  pauper  or  a 
millionaire.  It  is  not  to  condemn  the  rich;  it  is  to  wrestle 
mightily  for  the  hearts  of  men  against  the  snares  of  the 
devil,  of  which  riches  is  one  of  the  most  potent. 


110        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

The  man  or  tlie  dollar?  Can  an  age  which  is  aknost 
obHviously  absorbed  in  accumulating  wealth  be  brought 
to  feel  the  force  of  God's  warnings  about  its  dangers?  and 
by  prophets  who,  while  they  deal  with  spiritual  things,  are 
dependent  for  their  material  support  upon  such  sparse  por- 
tions of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness  as  this  same  age 
shall  deal  out  to  them?  The  relation  of  capital  and  labor 
and  of  wealth  and  poverty,  the  problems  of  the  distribution 
of  wealth,  of  trusts  and  labor  organizations,  of  the  great 
unorganized  public,  which  between  the  contending  parties 
is  mulcted  of  its  dues,  are  questions  too  involved  for  treat- 
ment in  a  chapter.  But  there  is  a  problem  which  outranks 
them  every  one,  and  which  bears  upon  each.  It  is  the 
comparative  value  of  a  man  and  a  dollar,  of  the  soul  and 
Mammon.  This  is  a  problem  for  legislation,  education, 
statesmanship.  It  is  a  tremendously  timely  problem  for 
the  pulpit  and  for  the  individual.  This  was  the  problem 
confronted  by  the  rich  young  ruler  who  came  to  Jesus. 
President  Edwin  M.  Poteat,  of  Furman  University,  whose 
utterances  on  the  consecration  of  wealth  have  probably 
not  been  surpassed  in  force,  points  out  that  the  young 
ruler  failed  because  his  religion  did  not  get  full  expression 
in  the  field  of  his  predominant  interest.  Our  Lord's  advice 
to  him — "sell  and  give" —  means  this:  You  get  on  re- 
ligiously only  if  you  carry  your  religion  into  the  field  of 
your  predominant  interest.  That  young  man  was  good 
and  religious  by  all  ordinary  standards.  He  would  be 
highly  valued  as  a  member  of  any  of  our  churches.  He 
prayed,  went  to  public  worship,  and  paid  his  part  to  main- 
tain religious  teaching,  and  to  the  poor.  He  kept  his  body 
and  heart  clean  from  the  grosser  sins  of  pleasure  and  ap- 
petite.    Apparently   his   wealth   had   not   intoxicated   him 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  111 

with  a  conceit  of  his  power  and  superiority,  else  he  would 
not  have  been  doing  so  tractible  a  thing  as  listening  to 
a  preacher  who  was  hated  by  the  accredited  ecclesiastical 
powers,  nor  would  he  have  openly  asked  the  Saviour  for 
counsel.  But  Jesus  saw  into  the  man's  heart.  "Do  you 
want  joy  in  religion?  You  can  have  it,  if  you  will  bring 
the  handling  of  your  property  under  the  restraints  of  re- 
ligion." But  when  the  young  man  heard,  he  went  away 
sorrowful,  for  he  had  great  possessions. 

Stewardship.  The  dealing  of  our  Lord  with  the  young 
ruler  presents  the  heart  of  Christian  stewardship.  This 
teaching  is  clear  throughout  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
that,  when  Christ  redeemed  us,  he  became  Master  and 
Lord  of  the  life  and  all  that  appertains  to  life.  Rich  in 
the  glory  of  heaven,  he  emptied  himself  and  became  obe- 
dient unto  death;  for  our  sake  he  became  poor,  that  we, 
through  his  poverty,  might  become  rich.  Stewardship 
touches  the  heart  and  soul  and  body.  It  also  touches  our 
possessions.  God  gave  them.  He  gave  the  sunshine  and 
rain  and  soil  fertility.  He  gave  the  health  and  brawn  of 
body,  and  the  mental  ability,  necessary  to  production,  or 
trade  and  barter.  He  gave  the  ingenuity  to  make  the 
machine  and  harness  it  to  meet  the  needs  of  man.  He 
made  the  steam  and  water  power  and  electric  current. 
The  land  is  his.  He  gave  himself  to  redeem  the  souls, 
lives  and  possessions  of  man.  This  teaching  is  so  clear 
that  there  is  no  gainsaying  it,  but  there  are  few  of 
us  who  can  set  it  forth  without  condemning  himself.  As 
these  chapters  were  being  written,  the  nation  was  giving 
to  humanitarian  activities  which  were  to  serve  the  needs 
of  the  American  armies,  as  never  before  in  our  history. 
Compared  with  the  past  these  gifts  are  wonderful.     It  is 


112        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

well  they  are.  The  moral  and  physical  weal  of  our  soldier 
boys  is  beyond  all  price,  and  we  cannot  do  too  much. 
But  the  unparalleled  gifts  of  the  nation  were  a  mere  baga- 
telle compared  with  what  it  ought  to  give,  if  we  really  ac- 
cepted the  principle  of  stewardship.  While  these  great 
gifts  were  made  mainly  to  conserve  the  physical  welfare  of 
our  armies,  those  which  were  given  for  definitely  religious 
service  among  the  soldiers  and  among  the  lost  millions  of 
our  land  and  other  lands,  were  in  comparison  pitifully, 
shamefully  small.  It  was  as  if  we  would  say:  We  must 
do  our  part  to  care  for  the  wounded  and  to  provide  recre- 
ation and  amusements  for  our  poor,  dear  lads,  so  that 
they  may  live  wholesome  and  clean  lives,  but  as  for  their 
souls,  which  Jesus  died  to  save,  as  for  their  hearts,  out 
of  which  flow  the  issues  of  life — ^we  are  not  sure  about 
that.  The  very  liberality  of  our  gifts  to  the  humanitarian 
causes  of  the  war,  worthy  as  they  are,  rise  up  to  condemn 
every  Christian  man  or  woman  who  give  nickels  and  dimes 
to  foster  soul-saving  and  dollars  for  providing  for  physical 
and  mental   needs. 

Stewardship  and  Kingdom-building.  The  average  brick- 
layer in  America  gets  five  or  six  dollars  a  day,  while  the 
average  preacher  gets  $700  a  year,  or  $2.50  per  day. 
The  average  railway  engineer  gets  about  $2,000,  while  the 
average  college  professor  gets  less  than  $1,300,  and  those 
in  Christian  colleges  less  still.  The  average  country  church 
in  the  South  pays  about  $100  to  an  absentee  preacher  for 
one  Sunday  a  month  (because  it  is  cheaper  than  two  Sun- 
days), while  the  ignorant  Negro  farm  hand  gets  about 
$300.  The  average  member  of  our  Southern  Baptist 
churches  gives  about  sixty  cents  annually  to  all  classes  of 
mission  work,  while — .  But  there  is  no  secular  interest  small 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  113 

enough  for  comparison  with  our  gifts  to  Christian  missions! 
The  brilliant  lamented  Dr.  J.  V.  Dickinson  once  reported 
a  discussion  he  had  with  a  Hardshell  Baptist  preacher  on 
a  train.  The  preacher  declared  that  his  people  show  up 
about  as  well  in  giving  nothing  to  missions,  in  which  they 
do  not  believe,  as  the  Missionary  Baptists  do  in  giving 
only  about  sixty  cents  each  to  a  world-wide  cause  in  which 
they  profess  that  they  do  believe.  It  means  much  to  ac- 
cept right  principles,  even  if  one  is  as  slow  as  a  snail  in 
coming  to  live  up  to  them.  But  it  is  impossible  to  consider 
the  parsimonious  support  given  to  preachers  and  churches 
and  to  missions,  by  the  millions  in  our  country  who  say 
they  belong  to  Jesus,  without  being  almost  appalled  at  the 
inconsistency  of  it.  Small  wonder  that  the  world  wags  a 
skeptical  head  and  sticks  its  tongue  in  its  cheek.  Many 
there  are,  who  would  be  skeptical  still  if  we  should  remove 
this  stumbling  block,  but  the  obligation  on  us  to  remove 
it  is  none  the  less  great.  And  the  clear  command  of  our 
Lord,  which  we  have  neglected  or  disobeyed,  arises  to 
rebuke  us. 

What  real  stewardship  would  accomplish.  Christianity 
has  been  and  is  the  salt  which  saves  society.  Poor  and 
halting  as  has  been  the  discipleship  of  many  who  profess 
to  love  Jesus,  Christianity  is  the  most  potent  force  of  up- 
lift in  the  world.  But  when  we  consider  the  generations 
of  Christians  who  have  throughout  their  lives  turned  their 
backs  upon  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  about 
stewardship,  it  is  to  wonder  that  our  religious  progress 
has  been  so  large.  If  a  lame  and  halting  service  has  done 
so  much  for  the  weary  souls  of  sinful  men,  what  could 
God's  people  not  do  if  they  would  really  serve  God  and 
men   with   their  substance.      Preachers   could  preach   and 


114  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

study,  instead  of  making  their  living  by  the  labor  of 
their  hands.  God  would  honor  and  bless  churches  which 
ceased  to  discredit  and  dishonor  the  men  who  teach  and 
lead  them.  God  would  call  preachers  from  among  churches 
which  thus  obeyed  him  and  honored  his  ministers.  Our 
Christian  colleges  would  be  equipped  for  a  great  service, 
instead  of  forever  under  the  necessity  of  heroic  appeals 
to  ears  which  are  not  quick  to  hear.  Our  theological 
schools  would  have  more  money  for  their  work  and  would 
have  to  double  the  size  of  their  plants  to  accommodate 
the  students  who  would  come.  Our  Mission  Boards  would 
devote  their  entire  energies  to  conducting  their  great  activi- 
ties and  making  them  more  effective,  instead  of  nervously 
watching  that  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year  they  may  not 
be  unable  to  make  the  tongue  of  income  fasten  over  the 
buckle  of  outgo,  and  thus  jeopardize  the  confidence  of  the 
brotherhood  in  their  administration!  It  is  a  pitiful  thing 
to  see  true  and  godly  men,  entrusted  to  lead  the  work 
of  the  Mission  Boards,  periodically,  under  the  apparent 
necessity  of  making  the  most  urgent  appeals  they  know 
how  to  make,  lest  there  be  a  debt — a  debt  that  will  come, 
perhaps,  because  the  average  church  member  gave  fifteen 
cents  during  the  year  to  the  cause,  instead  of  twenty-one; 
that  is,  five  war-time  postage  stamps,  instead  of  seven! 
This  world  is  never  more  in  folly  than  in  discrediting  of 
vital  power  which  is  in  the  gospel  of  Christ.  But  the 
world  despises  men  and  women  who  are  babies  in  charac- 
ter, and  in  the  Christian  stewardship  many  of  us  are  still 
infants. 

Preaching  stewardship.  I  have  no  confidence  in  cheap 
and  easy  proposals  looking  to  the  development  of  our 
people   in  Christian    stewardship.     The    one    outstanding 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE         115 

thing  we  have  done  in  recent  years  in  this  direction  is  the 
Laymen's  Movement.  Its  Secretary,  Prof.  J.  T.  Hender- 
son, oppressed  with  a  sense  of  the  immense  educational 
task  which  he  confronts,  has  found  himself  drawn  more 
and  more  to  educational  methods.  Thrilling  speeches  are 
fine.  Southern  Baptists  till  this  day  pin  unusual  faith  to 
them,  and  have  an  exceptional  number  of  men  who  can 
make  them.  But  thrilling  speeches  can  only  touch  the 
hem  of  the  garment  of  this  need.  "My  people  perish  for 
lack  of  knowledge."  In  stewardship,  as  in  the  general 
nurture  of  the  new-born  spiritual  life,  Baptists  seem  to 
have  reached  an  impasse.  Once  the  spiritual  babe  is 
born,  we  seem  to  have  an  unwarranted  faith  that  he  may 
be  left  to  forage  for  himself.  Tracts  and  newspaper  ar- 
ticles are  useful.  But  neither  tracts,  newspaper  articles, 
thrilling  speeches  on  big  occasions,  nor  the  annual  campaign 
period  of  importunity  of  our  Mission  Boards,  can  do  so 
great  a  thing  as  teach  stewardship  to  3,000,000  Southern 
Baptists.  Nor,  under  existing  conditions,  may  we  hope  that 
the  preachers  themselves  will  do  it,  in  many  of  the 
churches.  It  is  too  ripe  a  fruit  to  be  successfully  de- 
veloped under  once-a-month  cultivation,  by  a  preacher 
who  is  supposed  to  look  after  many  other  spiritual  needs 
in  his  far-apart  hours  of  instruction.  Moreover,  some  of 
the  preachers  will  first  need  to  be  converted  to  the  doc- 
trine of  stewardship.  Still,  we  can  succeed  when  we  are 
ready  to  pay  the  price.  But  beware  of  the  man  who  has 
a  ready-made  panacea.  Character-building  is  slow  and 
difficult.  Mushrooms  often  grow  over-night;  hardwoods 
may  take  a  century.  A  miner's  shack  may  be  erected  in 
a  few  hours;  it  took  many  years  to  build  Saint  Peter's. 
Secretary  Henderson  has  accomplished  much  by  his  ad- 


116        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

dresses,  but  he  soon  saw  that  there  must  be  something 
more  substantial  and  abiding.  In  my  work  with  him  for 
some  days  in  laymen's  institutes,  I  found  that  he  had 
adopted  methods  much  hke  those  of  the  Home  Board's 
Enlistment  men,  and  that  they  were  bearing  a  large  fruit- 
age. But  what  is  one  man,  what  are  twenty  of  our  most 
gifted  men,  in  the  face  of  so  immense  a  cultural  need! 
Like  the  handful  of  Enlistment  men,  Dr.  Henderson  is,  so 
to  speak,  a  John  the  Baptist,  crying  in  the  tangled  wilder- 
ness of  our  neglect,  calling  us  to  repentance  by  showing 
us  that  stewardship  is  a  great  doctrine,  and  that  there 
is  no  fix-it-while-you-wait  cure  for  an  ill  which  is  the  fruit 
of  generations  of  chronic  inattention. 

Slow  teaching,  fast  age.  The  situation  is  that  of  un- 
trained Christian  lives  in  a  day  of  marvelous  progress,  and 
in  which  science  and  learning  are  the  handmaidens  of 
dollar-coining.  It  is  a  situation  of  torpid  Christian  ac- 
tivities, resultant  on  a  chronic  lack  of  teaching,  in  a  day 
when  man  to  further  his  material  welfare  has  made  ma- 
chines, speeded  them  up  to  the  breaking  point,  and  then 
tried  to  speed  himself  up  to  the  same  pace.  Perhaps  God 
intends  to  compel  us  to  forsake  our  somnolent  religious 
methods  by  thrusting  it  patently  before  our  eyes  that,  if 
we  do  not  more  adequately  teach  men  to  know  and  do 
his  word,  he  will  forsake  us.  This  dilemma  actually  con- 
fronts us.  If  the  rank  and  file  of  our  people  shall  move 
like  the  tortoise  in  their  efforts  to  serve  the  spiritual  needs 
of  an  age  that  is  moving  like  an  express  train  in  material 
progress,  may  we  not  indeed  expect  that  God  shall  reject 
us  for  other  means  of  reaching  men? 

Have  we  a  gospel  for  the  proq>eroiis?  A  gospel  virile 
enough  to  reach  prosperous  people  is  needed  in  our  day. 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  117 

There  is  no  inherent  evil  in  wealth.  Christianity  fosters 
prosperity.  It  is  not  bad  in  itself;  it  is  only  dangerous, 
because  man  is  inherently  weak  and  sinful.  If  a  man  is 
genuinely  saved  from  his  sins,  his  wealth  may  become  a 
power  for  righteousness.  Now,  we  have  a  gospel  for  the 
troubled,  for  the  worn  and  tired,  for  the  weak  and  out- 
cast. Thank  God,  we  have!  We  shall  always  need  it. 
If  the  millions  of  disappointed  and  anxious  and  grieved 
and  discouraged,  whose  hearts  cry  out  in  yearning  for 
help  and  strength  and  comfort  in  this  day  and  in  every 
day,  had  no  one  who  could  see  and  feel  and  help,  when 
man's  help  does  not  avail,  life  would  be  a  miserable,  hope- 
less, worthless  thing.  But  God  wants  all  men  to  be  saved. 
The  atonement  of  Christ  is  for  the  prosperous  man  also. 
He  may  be  full  of  the  fret  and  worry  of  business.  His 
heart  may  be  foolishly  seeking  power  and  pleasure  in  his 
wealth.  But  his  sins  are  not  worse  than  other  sins,  except 
as  we  allow  him  to  remain  blinded  to  his  higher  interests. 
He  has  a  heart  that  hungers.  Are  we  strong  enough  to 
point  out  to  a  man  thus  insulated  by  affairs,  that  there  is 
no  real  satisfaction  in  wealth  except  through  service,  and 
no  availing  way  to  the  life  of  service  except  the  way  of 
the  cross? 

Where  our  mission  effort  stops.  Many  church  members 
are  little  interested  in  missions.  Some  of  those  who  are 
interested,  do  not  seem  to  consider  religious  effort  mis- 
sionary unless  it  reaches  down  to  help  some  one  up  from 
the  gutter,  or  takes  a  pagan  and  civilizes  him.  It  is  easy 
to  get  money  for  the  Indians,  or  to  stir  up  people  with  the 
story  of  an  unlettered  mountain  boy  and  his  heroic  strug- 
gle for  improvement.  But  there  is  usually  no  thorough- 
fare when  money  is  needed  to  bring  Jesus  to  the  knowledge 


118       THE  CALL  OP  THE  SOUTH 

of  the  prosperous.  Do  we  believe  that  the  woman  in  the 
limosine  and  the  man  who  radiates  prosperity  need  Jesus  > 
If  we  really  love  souls,  ought  we  not  to  love  them  in  pro- 
portion to  their  need?  Their  need  is  in  proportion  to  the 
blocks  which  beset  the  way  between  them  and  Christ  If 
wealth  is  a  more  disastrous  block,  it  calls  for  more  love, 
rather  than  less.  Christians  never  needed  bigger  hearts, 
a  clearer  vision,  or  more  courageous  purpose  in  missions 
than  now,  when  many  of  our  fellow  countrymen  have 
won  the  world's  prizes  only  to  find  that  somehow  they  do 
not  satisfy  the  soul.  But  it  will  take  a  faith  of  real  virility 
and  depth  to  deal  with  such.  If  ours  b  weak  and  fearful, 
we  shall  fail. 
DucontenL 

"The  lovely  toy  so  fiercely  sought 
Hath  lost  its  charm  by  being  caught." 

The  sentiment  of  these  lines  not  inaptly  describes  the 
undercurrent  of  discontent  which  is  now  in  society.  There 
is  one  whom  we  call  Lord  and  Master  who  taught  that 
"the  life  consisteth  not  of  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  a  man  possesseth."  But,  though  it  shames  us  to 
confess  it,  relatively  few  of  us  have  really  believed  it 
With  hungry  desire,  men  have  battled  for  possessions, 
spurred  on,  not  simply  by  a  wholesome  wish  to  provide  the 
things  which  are  needful,  while  putting  God's  Kingdom 
even  before  these.  Their  imaginations  have  reached  out 
after  the  power  and  worldly  influence  money  gives,  and 
the  pleasures  which  money  can  buy.  There  is  Capital 
and  Labor,  meaning  the  small  percent  of  labor  which  is 
organized  to  meet  organized  capital.  Together  they  make 
up  less  than  five  percent  of  our  population.  But  they  have 
an  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  number.    Capital 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  119 

seeks  to  get  a  larger  proportion  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation 
for  its  own  uses;  organized  labor  seeks  a  larger  propor- 
tion for  its  brawn  and  brain.  Both  ususdly  succeed  be- 
yond their  just  deserts,  as  compared  with  the  great  unor- 
ganized mass  of  the  citizenship,  who  labor  more  than  or- 
ganized labor  and  who  own  more  capital  than  the  cap- 
italists, but  get  relatively  small  consideration  in  legisla- 
tion, having  no  bandit's  bludgeon  conveniently  at  hand 
wherewith  to  command  it.  There  is  enough  for  all,  if  we 
wanted  to  do  right,  and  were  ready  to  help  each  other, 
instead  of  watching  each  like  a  hawk  for  his  own  interest. 
With  the  exchanges  and  stock  markets  thronged  with  men 
who  greedily,  restlessly  seek  to  shunt  golden  streams  from 
the  common  wealth  into  their  private  pockets,  without 
rendering  a  fair  service  to  society  for  it;  with  Capital  and 
Labor  pla3nng  see-saw,  each  desperately  trying  to  kick  up 
his  end  of  the  plank;  with  phenominal,  mind-paralysing 
wealth  throughout  the  land,  our  nation  has  come  into  a 
condition  of  unrest  and  discontent  which  is  pitiable  and 
alarming,  but  not  hopeless. 

In  the  cmcible.  We  pray  God  to  take  away  from  the 
earth  the  nightmare  of  war.  May  he  speedily  break  down 
the  wicked  and  greedy  designs  of  kings  and  emperors,  and 
set  the  people  free.  We  believe  that  God  will  do  it. 
But  when  these  words  were  written  it  looked  as  if  he 
would  do  it  by  putting  our  nation  through  the  crucible  of 
heart-ache  and  suffering.  We  would  that  this  cup  might 
be  removed  from  us,  but  may  it  not  be  the  hand  and  wis- 
dom of  God,  sorely  chastizing  us  for  the  greediness  of 
heart  with  which  we  have  sought  satisfaction  in  our  pos- 
sessions, while  all  the  time  he  was  calling  us  to  give  our 
hearts  to  him!     If  the  world  ever  had  a  convincing  demon- 


120  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

stration  that  wealth  does  not  bring  happiness,  it  has  it  in 
America  now.  Piles  and  piles  of  wealth  are  ours,  but  in 
his  nervous  haste  to  make  money  and  keep  money  and 
spend  money,  the  average  American  has  found  only  a 
growing  dissatisfaction.  We  wanted  "to  improve  our  con- 
dition in  life."  Well,  we  have  done  so.  And  now,  heaven 
is  no  nearer,  the  heart  is  no  fuller,  love  is  no  sweeter,  and, 
alas!  often  the  soul  is  smaller,  its  eyes  suffering  from  a 
myopia  which  neither  money  nor  opticians  can  cure.  The 
possession  of  things  kills  desire.  The  possession  of  God 
and  his  Christ  fills  the  heart  and  grows  a  soul-hunger  for 
which  there  is  unfailing  satisfaction.  But,  gracious  God  in 
heaven,  who  among  the  cowards  who  haste  after  wealth 
and  pleasure  will  believe  it?  Must  each  mortal  man  butt 
his  own  individual  head  against  the  stone  wall  of  experi- 
ence? Can  none  learn  from  the  experience  of  others? 
What  one  of  the  mad,  hurrying,  speed-obsessed,  money- 
getting,  automobile-buying,  pleasure-chasing,  train-riding, 
globe-trotting,  luxury-consuming  crowd  that  surges  and 
twists  and  hurries  on,  will  stop  from  his  wild  career  to 
consider?    God  will  find  a  way  to  make  us  think. 

A  prayer  for  mercy  and  teachableness.  Lord  God  of 
grace  and  love,  look  down  upon  us,  thine  erring  children. 
We  are  prone  to  evil.  With  thy  words  before  us,  we  are 
still  often  stubborn  of  heart  and  blind  to  their  meaning. 
A  feverish  desire  consumes  our  soul.  Thou  hast  said  that 
happiness  is  not  to  be  had  from  things,  but  we  have  not 
believed  it.  We  have  taken  the  bit  in  our  teeth.  With 
greedy  self-will  we  have  speeded  up  the  iron-hearted  ma- 
chine to  make  wealth,  and  then  dedicated  our  own  brain 
and  body  and  nerves  to  an  effort  to  keep  up  with  the 
thing  we  made.     Yet,  in  our  heart  of  hearts,  we  confess 


A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE  121 

to  thee  that  we  have  not  found  happiness  in  the  absorption 
which  has  crept  upon  us.  We  hunger  for  that  peace  and 
that  good  which  money  cannot  buy,  and  which  cannot  be 
locked  up  in  strong  boxes.  Thou  wast  our  God,  in  the 
days  of  our  poverty  and  distress.  Now,  0  Lord,  hold  on 
to  us,  that  we  may  not  become  enslaved  to  Mammon.  We 
thank  thee  for  prosperity.  But  if  we  are  so  weak,  so  bar- 
ren of  spirit,  so  fat  of  heart  that  prosperity  shall  sodden 
our  souls,  take  these  possessions  from  us,  we  pray,  that  a 
worse  thing  may  not  befall  us.  Open  thou  the  hearts  of 
the  Christian  people  of  the  South,  that  they  may  become 
stewards  of  thine,  rendering  unto  thee  and  unto  thy  service 
the  first  fruits  of  their  substance.  Put  heavily  upon  those 
among  us  of  leadership  and  influence  the  conviction  that 
we  must  nurture  the  people  of  God,  to  live  for  him  and 
not  merely  to  offer  their  naked  souls,  while  carelessly  re- 
maining through  life  unnurtured  babes  in  Christ.  Make  us 
worthy,  we  beseech  thee,  that  our  deeds  may  be  of  love  and 
our  substance  accepted  for  service,  and  that  our  works 
may  abide  as  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones.  We 
ask  it  humbly  in  the  name  of  thy  Son,  who  emptied  him- 
self of  heaven's  riches,  and  became  poor  for  our  sake, 
that  we  might  become  rich  in  grace  through  him.     Amen! 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  V. 

1.  Give  eridences  of  the  great  wealth  of  America  and  of  the 
South. 

2.  What  is  the  New  Testament  teaching  concerning  wealth? 

3.  Give  the  Bible  teaching  concerning  stewardship,  and  show 
what  eflfect  its  general  practice  in  the  churches  would  have 
on  religious  life. 

4.  What  sort  of  a  gospel  may  we  expect  to  be  adequate  for  a 
prosperous  age? 

5.  Show  how  and  why  all  our  present  prosperity  has  failed  to 
bring  content  and  satisfaction  to  the  hearts  of  men. 

6.  Does  God  purpose  that  the  suffering  of  war  shall  win  as 
from  sinful  absorption  in  the  pursuit  of  prosperity? 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  IMMIGRANT. 

An  iuq>aralleled  people  movement.  The  hegira  from 
Europe  and  Western  Asia  to  America  for  the  last  gen- 
eration has  been  a  movement  of  people  such  as  the  world 
never  witnessed  before.  In  its  size  and  the  distance  cov- 
ered across  ocean  wastes,  the  inundation  of  immigrants 
which  has  swept  down  on  this  country,  has  been  without 
precedent.  Sociologists,  statesmen,  and  reUgious  workers 
have  puzzled  over  it.  Religious  bodies  and  missionary 
agencies  have  experimentally  grappled  with  it,  hoping  they 
may  learn  how  to  Christianize  and  Americanize  this  in- 
choate mass.  There  is  no  time  card  to  tell  how  soon  we 
may  expect  these  millions  of  aliens  in  our  land  to  arrive 
at  the  terminal  of  real  Americanism.  Foremen  in  great 
steel  mills,  on  railway  construction  or  in  the  manufacture 
of  garments,  can  estimate  what  they  will  get  out  of  these 
old-world  industrial  adventurers;  not  so  can  the  compara- 
tively unorganized  forces  of  religion  and  moral  uplift  tell 
what  we  may  expect  next  year,  or  a  generation  hence, 
in  their  reaction  on  American  life. 

A  question  of  statesmanship.  The  pessimist  says  the 
flocking  alien  spells  the  undoing  of  American  religion  and 
civil  institutions,  the  driving  out  of  the  sacred  traditions 
for  which  our  fathers  suffered.  The  optimist  declares  that 
the  ancestors  of  all  of  us  were  once  immigrants.  He  has 
no  doubt  that  America  can  take  care  of  all  manner  and 
kinds  of  strains  that  may  come  from  immigration,  or  from 


124  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

anything  else.  Somewhere  between  these  two  extreme 
positions  lies  the  truth.  It  is  proposed  here  to  outline  a 
few  leading  factors  of  the  problem  and  to  utter  a  true 
word  concerning  what  we  should  undertake  to  do  for  the 
new-comers.  I  go  this  far  with  the  pessimist:  I  am  filled 
with  amazement  at  the  easy  confidence  of  many  writers 
and  religious  workers  to  the  effect  that  America,  appar- 
ently by  some  unspecified  kind  of  good  luck,  may  be  de- 
pended upon  to  assimilate  without  deterioation  unlimited 
thousands  of  people  whose  lives  and  ideals  are  utterly 
foreign  to  those  of  America.  If  the  immigrant's  improve- 
ment is  to  be  accomplished  only  by  the  weakening  of  our 
country's  religious  and  civic  ideals,  it  will  be  to  kill  the 
goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg.  We  cannot  inspire  and 
lift  other  people  by  permitting  our  own  ideals  and  insti- 
tutions to  be  water-logged,  or  by  losing  our  identity  in  a 
vast  inarticulate  mass  of  polyglot  peoples.  Nor  can  the 
patriot  forget  that  America  has  a  duty  to  her  own  sons 
which  takes  precedence  over  any  she  has  to  masses  of 
people  in  other  nations,  who  wish  to  flock  to  our  land 
for  the  money  they  hope  to  get  here.  Both  patriotism  and 
religion  require  tliat  we  shall  conserve  American  stand- 
ards, for  America's  own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
world.  Perhaps  the  World  War  and  the  threat  that  has 
come  to  this  country  from  thousands  of  aliens  here  who 
would  willingly  have  betrayed  the  country  that  has  given 
them  shelter  and  opportunity,  will  awaken  us  to  some  of 
the  dangers  in  immigration.     May  it  be  so! 

Some  immigrant  figures.  During  the  last  hundred  years, 
30,000,000  of  these  humble  argonauts  have  left  home  and 
people  and  braved  the  ocean's  expanse  for  the  hope  of 
good   in  America.     Since    1900,    13,500,000   have   come. 


THE  IMMIGRANT  125 

forty  percent  of  the  movement  for  the  century.  WiUiam 
P.  Shriver,  in  "Immigrant  Forces,"  says  that  for  a  period 
of  five  years,  ending  in  1912,  thirty-four  percent  of  the 
immigrants  emigrated.  If  this  average  of  departure  has 
prevailed  since  1900,  the  increase  of  American  population 
from  immigration  during  that  period  has  been  9,000,000, 
nearly  one  person  in  every  ten  in  the  Republic.  The 
report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Immigration  for  1917  called 
attention  that  the  average  influx  annually  for  the  decade 
from  1905  to  1914  was  1,012,194.  The  great  war  cut 
down  the  movement,  so  that  there  were  only  298,000  in 
1916  and  295,000  in  1917.  The  net  increase  from  immi- 
gration for  the  three  years  ending  in  1917  was  only 
392,000.  The  new  literary  test  had  been  in  operation  only 
two  months  when  the  1917  report  was  made.  During  those 
two  months,  391  aliens  were  excluded  through  the  appli- 
cation of  this  test.  The  exclusions  do  not  measure  the 
significance  of  the  test;  to  do  that  we  would  have  to  know 
the  number  restrained  from  coming  because  this  test  would 
confront  them. 

Who  the  immigrants  are.  Up  to  about  thirty  years  ago, 
most  of  the  immigrants  were  from  northern  Europe.  They 
were  English,  Scotch,  Irish,  French,  Dutch,  Germans,  Scan- 
dinavians. Since  that  time,  and  especially  for  the  last 
twenty  years,  the  larger  number  came  from  southern  and 
southeastern  Europe.  The  Italians,  Russians,  and  Greeks, 
and  the  Austro-Hungarian  peoples,  show  up  in  bewilder- 
ing numbers.  These  are  not  the  racial  strains  which  made 
America.  Their  standard  of  living  is  lower.  Religiously 
about  two-thirds  of  them  are  nominally  Roman  Catholics, 
though  there  is  a  considerable  Protestant  element  from 
Hungary.      The   great   majority   of   the   incomers   are   of 


126       THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  peasant  class.  America  has  no  native  population  anal- 
agous  to  the  European  peasant.  Though  they  congest  the 
tenement  district  of  our  cities,  nearly  all  of  them  came 
from  the  soil.  Usually  the  peasant  was  indigenous  to  the 
land.  Disadvantaged  by  heavy  taxes  and  an  oppressive 
overlord  system,  the  peasant  of  Europe  often  lives  on  land 
where  his  people  have  taken  root  through  generations. 
This  fact  suggests  a  certain  stability.  It  will  be  well  if 
some  of  this  may  be  persevered  in  America,  where  even 
the  sluggish  immigrant  becomes  nervous  and  mercurial  with 
the  leaven  of  our  speeded-up  civilization.  The  immigrants 
are  the  best  and  strongest  specimens  of  the  social  stratum 
from  which  they  come.  The  weakest  people  of  a  class 
are  not  those  who  break  away  from  the  trammels  which 
bind  to  try  their  fortune  in  the  far  unknown. 

Why  they  come.  Once  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  others 
came  to  America's  unsubdued  wilds  to  find  religious  lib- 
erty. That  was  long  ago.  Few  come  now  for  political 
or  religious  liberty.  The  magnet  that  draws  the  mass  is 
American  money.  Poets  have  told  us  how  the  statue  of 
liberty  in  New  York  harbor  inspires  the  poor  immigrants, 
as  their  vessel  approaches  the  land.  It  is  a  pleasant  pic- 
ture. We  wish  it  was  true.  It  is  true,  however,  only  for 
the  exceptional  man.  Most  of  them  know  next  to  nothing 
about  this  country  and  its  people  and  care  very  little. 
They  have  heard  of  America  as  a  place  where  one  picks 
money  from  the  trees,  where  millions  may  be  made.  A 
large  proportion  of  them  expect  to  return  to  their  former 
homes  to  enjoy  the  fortune  they  hope  to  make  here. 
About  one-third  of  them  actually  do  return.  There  are 
some  immigrants  who  come  with  a  desire  to  become  citi- 
zens of  America,  because  of  the  great  measure  of  human 


THE  IMMIGRANT  127 

rights  to  be  enjoyed  here.  But  we  need  not  shut  our  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  the  great  mastering  motive  behind  the 
movement  is  the  selfish  motive  of  gain.  There  is  an  ele- 
ment eimong  them  who  hold  our  institutions  in  a  positive 
dislike.  Among  the  large  number  of  Russians  who  seem- 
ingly expected  to  cure  their  country's  ills  by  speech-mak- 
ing, following  the  overthrow  of  the  Tzar,  some  of  the 
most  vociferous  were  men  who  had  returned  from  America, 
and  who  derided  the  idea  of  setting  up  a  government  as 
imperfect  as  they  say  ours  is. 

The  immigrant  and  industry.  The  immigrant  nearly  al- 
ways finds  his  place  in  industry.  Naturally  he  takes  the 
jobs  at  the  bottom.  He  constructs  most  of  our  railways, 
makes  most  of  our  clothes,  does  most  of  the  hard  work  in 
steel  and  iron  mills,  and  digs  most  of  our  coal  from  the 
mines.  He  leads  in  smelting  copper,  refining  oil,  and  mak- 
ing furniture.  A  survey  which  has  been  in  great  vogue 
in  this  country,  declares  that  he  manufactures  ninety-one 
percent  of  the  cotton  goods.  Of  course  this  is  untrue, 
since  about  fifty  percent  of  the  cotton  goods  are  made  in 
the  South,  and  not  one  operative  in  thirty  in  the  Southern 
mills  is  a  foreigner.  The  survey  evidently  took  no  account 
of  Southern  mills.  Southern  readers  of  Northern  writers 
on  American  problems  have  learned  that  they  must  correct 
many  statements  which  refer  to  this  section.  This  partic- 
ular error  has  been  sown  broadcast  among  students  of 
the  immigrant  problem,  and  until  now  I  have  seen  no  cor- 
rection of  it.  The  great  industrial  zone  of  America  is  in 
the  North  and  Middle  West.  If  the  student  will  draw  a 
straight  line  from  the  southwest  corner  of  Illinois  north- 
west to  the  national  boundary,  passing  just  west  of  Min- 
neapolis, and  another  line  from  the  starting  point  to  the 


128  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Atlantic  coast,  passing  between  Washington  and  Baltimore, 
he  will  include  to  the  north  of  these  lines  eighteen  percent 
of  the  national  area.  In  1910,  this  territory  had  46,000,- 
000  people,  about  half  the  population  of  continental  United 
States.  Three-fourths  of  the  foreign  born  people  of  the 
country  are  in  this  territory,  where  they  form  the  mud- 
sill of  industry.  In  the  same  section  are  thirty-two  cities 
of  more  than  100,000  population.  Many  of  these  cities 
were  built  by  industry,  and  the  foreign  quarter,  with  the 
problems  of  congestion,  of  health  and  moral  sanitation, 
presses  for  adequate  treatment  in  every  one  of  them. 

The  South  and  the  foreigner.  Rapid  as  is  the  industrial 
development  of  the  South,  the  immigrant  is  still  in  a  pe- 
culiar sense  the  problem  of  the  North.  At  the  same  time, 
there  are  nearly  4,000,000  foreigners  and  children  of 
foreigners  in  the  South,  a  larger  number  than  the  re- 
ligious bodies  of  the  South  have  yet  demonstrated  their 
ability  to  Christianize  and  Americanize.  The  religious 
forces  of  Northern  denominations  are  grappling  with  the 
needs  of  the  immigrant  more  vigorously  than  we  of  the 
South.  Baptists  of  the  North  are  particularly  active,  but 
not  all  the  saving  agencies  combined  are  sufficient  to 
show  that  American  Christendom  is  fully  awake  to  the 
responsibility  and  opportunity  which  the  immigrant  brings. 
In  the  coal  mines  of  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  Tennessee; 
in  the  mines  and  cities  of  Missouri  and  Oklahoma;  on 
the  rice  farms  of  Arkansas  and  the  sugar  plantations  of 
Louisiana;  on  the  plains  of  Texas;  in  the  oyster  and  fish 
business  of  southern  Mississippi;  in  Tampa,  Pensacola,  Key 
West,  Norfolk,  Charleston,  Baltimore,  Birmingham,  New 
Orleans,  Memphis,  Galveston,  San  Antonio,  St.  Louis, 
Louisville,   Southern   Illinois,   El   Paso,   and   New  Mexico, 


THE  IMMIGRANT  129 

there  are  foreigners  by  thousands  who  need  the  loving 
ministries  and  teaching  of  God's  people.  That  the  mass- 
ing of  these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  immigrants  in  the 
industrial  centers  is  a  menace  to  the  moral,  political,  and 
religious  life  of  the  country  only  an  incorrigible  optimist 
will  deny.  Unhappily  the  incorrigible  optimist  has  more 
vogue  among  us  than  he  deserves.  At  his  best,  he  keeps 
people  feeling  good  so  long  as  their  house  of  cards  stands, 
without  any  ability  to  help  when  it  falls.  At  his  worst, 
he  prevents  men  from  safeguarding  against  peril  by  keep- 
ing them  from  seeing  it.  "But  these  immigrants  furnish 
labor  to  develop  our  resources,"  says  the  economist.  "Be- 
sides, it  is  cheap  labor."  Precisely!  In  saying  which  the 
economist  has  set  forth  perhaps  the  chiefest  reason  why 
it  is  so  difficult  to  get  men  to  think  and  act  sanely  about 
immigration.  "These  millions,"  says  the  religious  enthusi- 
ast, "are  our  opportunity  to  save  the  world  at  our  doors." 
He  speaks  truly.  But  to  continue  to  speak  thus,  without 
seriously  seeking  to  put  forth  effort  adequate  to  meet  such 
great  needs,  is  to  suggest  an  effort  to  save  the  immigrant 
by  words  and  theories.  It  will  require  deeds  to  save  him, 
great  deeds  inspired  by  the  love  of  Christ. 

The  religion  of  the  immigrant  Most  of  the  immigrants 
have  been  brought  up  in  a  ritualistic  religion,  which  has 
made  it  difficult  for  them  to  find  Christ  as  a  personal 
Saviour.  Tens  of  thousands  of  them  have  a  form  of  god- 
liness without  its  power.  These  are  often  as  much  in  need 
of  Christian  teaching  and  aid  as  are  those  who  have  no 
religion  at  all.  Others,  whose  religious  connections  were 
evangelical,  need  to  be  brought  into  identity  with  the  re- 
ligious life  of  their  new  country.  There  are  not  a  few 
immigrants   who   have   come   from  pagan   countries,    and 


130  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

who  bring  their  religion  with  them.  There  are  said  to  be 
on  the  Pacific  coast  150,000  immigrants  from  eastern  Asia. 
Buddhists  claim  to  have  seventy-four  temples  in  America. 
In  order  to  adopt  this  Oriental  pagan  faith  to  American 
people,  the  Buddhists  have  appropriated  the  tunes  of  Chris- 
tian songs,  as,  "Oh,  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing  my 
Holy  Buddha's  praise."  With  Los  Angeles  as  a  center, 
the  Buddhist  priest  and  his  helpers  regularly  visit  eight 
missions.  Seventy-five  American  women  were  counted  at 
service  at  one  of  these  missions,  their  limousines  waiting 
outside.  The  Hindus  and  Mahommedans  are  also  seeking 
to  set  up  their  religions  in  America. 

Foreign  Missions  at  our  door.  Spokesmen  for  American 
missions  have  often  insisted  on  the  greatness  of  the  op- 
portunity the  immigrants  afiFord  us  to  do  foreign  mission 
work  in  our  own  country.  This  emphasis  cannot  be  made 
too  strong.  Until  American  Christian  bodies  come  to  do 
more  than  they  have  done  for  the  new-comers,  it  will  be 
evident  that  the  emphasis  is  not  strong  enough.  The 
American  Missionary  Society  states  the  case  thus:  "The 
greatest  Foreign  Mission  land  on  the  globe  today  is  our 
own  America.  Here  we  do  not  go  in  search  of  millions; 
the  millions  come  to  us.  We  are  not  compelled  to  learn 
their  language;  they  are  anxious  to  learn  ours.  We  are 
not  obliged  to  conform  to  alien  customs;  they  are  here  to 
adopt  ours.  We  are  not  a  little  group  engulfed  in  hun- 
dreds of  millions;  we  are  the  majority.  These  strangers 
are  cut  loose  from  their  native  governments  and  religious 
customs.  We  are  not  compelled  to  uproot  and  displace 
old  established  beliefs.  This  is  the  great  open  world  field 
for  propagating  Christian  faith."  In  a  missionary  meet- 
ing at  Canton,  China,  there  were  fifty  Chinamen  who  were 


THE  IMMIGRANT  131 

engaged  in  Christian  work  as  native  preachers,  of  whom 
it  transpired  that  twenty-five  had  been  converted  while  in 
America.  Ng  Poon  Chew,  editor  of  the  Chinese  daily 
paper  of  San  Francisco,  recently  visited  his  native  village 
in  China.  A  Christian  from  American  teaching,  he  ex- 
plained Christianity  to  the  people.  In  the  temple  where 
the  idol  of  his  ancestors  stood,  he  told  the  idolators  of  the 
true  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son.  The  people  heard 
gladly  and  in  two  days  the  seven  hundred  families  com- 
posing that  community  destroyed  their  idols. 

What  we  are  doing  for  foreigners.  Methodists,  Presby- 
terians and  Baptists  are  each  doing  something  to  evan- 
gelize and  Christianize  the  foreigners  in  the  South.  Our 
Baptist  effort  engages  about  sixty  workers,  of  whom  twenty 
are  co-operative  missionaries  among  the  Texas  Mexicans 
and  ten  are  co-operative  missionaries  in  Louisiana  among 
the  French-speaking  population  and  the  Italians.  The 
other  workers  are  teachers,  pastors,  port-workers,  and 
mining  town  missionaries.  The  teachers  are  at  Norfolk, 
Tampa,  and  El  Paso,  and  in  South  Louisiana.  Teaching 
is  combined  with  what  may  be  called  deaconess  work  by 
women  missionaries  in  Southern  Illinois  and  Oklahoma. 
The  pastors  are  in  foreign  communities  in  Missouri  and 
Alabama,  Illinois  and  Texas,  and  at  Tampa,  Florida.  The 
largest  local  effort  of  the  Board  for  foreigners  is  in  Tampa, 
among  Cubans  and  Italians.  There  are  here  two  mis- 
sionary pastors  and  eight  women  teachers.  The  port  work 
makes  the  strongest  appeal  to  the  imagination,  and  for 
years  the  Home  Mission  Board  has  had  Miss  Marie 
Buhlmaier,  a  gifted  and  consecrated  woman,  at  the  Bal- 
timore port,  whose  untiring  activities  have  been  of  great 
aid  to   many   hundreds   of  the  needy  and   often   helpless 


182  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

immigrant  arrivals.  While  the  lady  is  indefatigable  in 
her  deeds  of  kindness,  by  her  words  of  loving  instruction 
she  leads  many  to  find  the  Saviour  of  souls.  The  work  of 
the  teachers  is  not  so  dramatic,  but,  along  with  missionary 
pastoral  service,  it  is  invaluable  in  turning  whole  immi- 
grant communities  toward  religion  and  toward  American 
ideals.  The  foreigner  service  of  our  Home  Mission  Board 
is  conducted  by  consecrated  and  devoted  men  and  women 
and  its  successes  are  large  and  gratifying. 

The  churches  and  the  foreigners.  In  addition  to  the 
direct  value  of  the  service  rendered  by  the  Home  Board 
missionaries,  is  the  encouragement  it  gives  local  churches 
to  look  after  the  foreigners  in  their  own  communities. 
There  are  in  our  towns  and  cities  hundreds  of  churches 
near  which  live  a  number  of  foreigners.  Though  these 
groups  are  often  too  small  to  justify  sending  a  special 
worker,  the  aggregate  number  of  people  in  them  is  much 
greater  than  those  who  are  in  larger  colonies.  These  lonely 
people  are  more  easy  to  reach  than  they  would  be  if  they 
had  around  them  a  community  of  their  own  people.  It  is 
a  service  which  our  churches  can  render  and  in  doing 
which  both  the  foreigners  and  church  would  be  helped  and 
strengthened.  Much  as  we  need  an  increased  support  of 
our  organized  mission  work,  perhaps  we  do  not  need  it 
quite  so  much  as  we  do  an  awakening  of  each  church  to 
its  obligation  to  save  and  build  up  the  people  in  its  own 
community.  It  will  not  suffice  for  the  church  to  establish 
a  mission  school  in  a  shack  in  some  obscure  comer.  If  it 
has  not  something  vital  of  itself  to  give,  it  will  fail.  But 
the  humiliation  of  even  such  a  failure,  might  be  a  whole- 
some first  step  in  many  a  church  toward  the  time  when 
it  shall  wake  up  to  understand  the  spiritual  benefits  which 


THE  IMMIGRANT  133 

come  from  going  out  into  the  hedges  and  byways  and  com- 
pelling them  to  come  in. 

To  sum  up.  The  immigrant  lacks  much  of  being  the 
chief  mission  problem  in  the  South,  but  he  is  a  far  larger 
problem  than  we  have  shown  ourselves  prepared  to  care 
for.  We  do  not  know  what  will  happen  in  immigration 
after  the  World  War  is  over,  but  the  conflict  itself  has 
shocked  into  an  awareness  of  danger  some  of  our  com- 
placent opportunists.  There  is  ground  for  hope  that  the 
selfish  forces  which  have  wrought  for  unrestricted  immi- 
gration will  not  be  able  to  have  their  own  way  in  the  future 
as  they  have  had  in  the  past.  The  immigrant  is  our  respon- 
sibility. We  must  Christianize  him  and  Americanize  him, 
or  he  will  become  a  sinister  threat  to  American  religious 
institutions  and  democracy.  The  tens  of  thousands  who 
are  ever  returning  from  America  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
make  a  foreign  mission  opportunity  in  America,  such 
as  never  came  to  any  other  country.  The  apparent 
indifference  of  many  of  us  to  the  unmatched  opportunities 
thus  afforded,  is  not  encouraging,  to  say  the  least.  Does 
it  not  amount  almost  to  a  confession  that  we  do  not  feel 
that  we  have  a  religion  which  is  able  to  save  men  and 
send  them  out  as  evangels  of  salvation?  It  is  a  symptom 
of  a  weak  faith,  from  which  we  should  humbly  seek  a 
cure.  If  we  are  to  hold  our  country  for  Christ,  and  if 
we  are  really  to  send  the  gospel  out  with  saving  power  into 
the  sinful  and  needy  world,  we  must  save  the  foreigners 
who  come  to  our  country.  As  never  before,  we  are  now 
emphasizing  strategy  in  religious  effort.  Here  is  strategy 
so  simple  that  all  may  understand  its  value,  and  large 
enough  in  promise  to  profoundly  impress  every  sincere 
Christian,  whose  heart  is  open  to  see  the  truth  and  to 


134  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

perform  the  doing  of  it.  Here  is  an  opportunity  to  evan- 
gelize the  nations  which  never  before  came  to  a  people. 
If  we  are  zealous  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  our 
Lord  among  men,  we  will  gladly  give  ourselves  to  a  service 
which  promises  so  abundant  a  harvest  both  in  America  and 
in  other  lands. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  Show  that  immigration  is  a  question  of  Christian  statetnan- 
ship. 

2.  Describe  American  immigration  in  terms  of  racial  origin  and 
numbers. 

3.  Discuss  the  motives  which  bring  the  immigrants,  and  indicate 
the  large  part  the  in-comers  play  in  industry. 

4.  Desicribe  immigration  in  terms  of  the  religions  brought  in, 
of  the  influence  on  American  Christianity,  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  opportunity  their  coming  affords. 

5.  Discuss  what  Southern  Baptists  are  doing  for  foreigners,  and 
the  obligation  of  local  churches  to  them. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE. 

Intolerance,  in  new  robes.  In  this  age  a  small  group  of 
men,  making  a  noise  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  num- 
ber, professes  great  tolerance  in  religion.  Its  confidence  is 
in  its  broad-mindedness.  Faith  was  counted  to  Abraham 
for  righteousness.  The  token  by  which  the  spirit  of  our 
times  would  challenge  heaven's  approval  is  not  faith,  but  an 
extravagant  liberalism,  which  often  makes  a  virtue  of  tol- 
erating what  God  condemns,  and  of  discrediting  those  who 
hold  strictly  to  the  teachings  of  the  Bible.  These  men  have 
tolerance  for  every  religious  faith,  but  bring  to  bear  con- 
centrated intolerance  on  those  who  stand  boldly  for  the 
faith  and  teachings  of  the  gospel  of  the  atoning  Christ.  In 
business,  politics  and  social  life  they  reserve  the  right  for 
each  to  think  and  choose  for  himself;  else  he  might  run 
athwart  the  faith  of  his  neighbor.  Particularly  he  must  not 
teach  the  faith  he  has  learned  from  the  New  Testament,  lest 
he  should  offend  others  who  do  not  accept  all  of  it  as  he 
does,  or  those  who  accept  none  of  it.  For  this  reason  these 
men  with  great  hatred  hate  doctrinal  teaching,  and  boldly 
seek  to  justify  their  hatred  by  making  such  teaching  appear 
odious.  One  may  contend  for  his  views  in  temporal  and 
selfish  concerns,  but  not  in  the  concerns  of  the  immortal 
spirit;  that  would  be  bigotry.  You  may  believe  anything 
or  nothing,  but  you  must  not  teach  against  even  the  most 
subtle  and  destructive  errors.  If  you  did,  you  might  run 
athwart  the  sentiments  of  other  men,  and  these  "advanced" 


136        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

thinkers  will  not  allow  that  in  religion,  though  it  is  all  right 
in  any  other  zone  of  Ufe.  This,  if  the  reader  please,  is  a 
glimpse  of  the  devil  of  intolerance  in  his  new,  angel-of' 
light  robes. 

The  new  ^'tolerance.''  Only  at  the  peril  of  his  soul  and 
of  the  souls  of  all  whom  he  influences,  may  the  child 
of  God  silently  acquiesce  in  this  fair-seeming  creed  of  tol- 
erance. For  one  thing,  the  aggressive  campaign  through 
which  this  creed  advertises  its  professed  virtues,  should 
make  one  suspicious.  The  Spirit  of  God  works  more 
quietly.  Its  wonderful  popularity  with  the  world  is  also  an 
illuminating  circumstance;  the  world  knows  its  own.  True 
religion  does  not  laud  its  virtues  nor  belittle  others,  but  this 
modern  gospel  of  tolerance  does.  It  attributes  to  unoffend- 
ing Presbyterian  elders,  Methodist  stewards  and  Baptist 
deacons  motives  of  narrow  hate  and  of  sectarian  bitterness 
toward  each  other,  which  those  faithful  men  never  con- 
ceived. With  them  it  includes  the  half-paid  preachers,  who 
for  Christ's  sake  are  giving  their  lives  in  the  battle  of  God 
for  the  fortress  of  man-soul  against  the  cunning  wiles  of 
the  devil.  Though  ready  to  rail  upon  men  whose  shoes 
it  is  unworthy  to  loose,  the  new  toleration  suffers  from 
a  lapse  of  memory  when  there  is  some  real  case  of  intol- 
erance to  report.  It  speaks  softly  or  not  at  all  about  the 
horrors  of  the  inquisition  conducted  by  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics in  the  Middle  Ages.  In  newspaper,  pulpit  and  maga- 
zine, and  on  the  platform,  it  is  unable  even  to  see  the 
present  machinations  of  Rome  in  America,  much  less  char- 
acterize them  for  what  they  are.  That  would  be  "bigoted." 
But  it  is  apparently  not  so  to  caricature  and  falsely  malign 
good  men  and  Christian  bodies,  whose  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  teachings  hinders  the  full  fruition  of  the  new  toler- 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  137 

ance.  The  bloody  persecution  of  a  crude  age  is  discredited. 
So  the  devil  of  intolerance,  through  progressive  phases  of 
hypocritical  pretense,  has  adjusted  himself  to  the  new  en- 
vironment. Look  for  him  in  the  smooth-tongued  and  plaus- 
ible advocate  of  a  larger  liberality  and  tolerance.  Toler- 
ance is  not  large  enough  to  suit  him  so  long  as  men  con- 
tinue faithfully  to  hold  to  the  doctrines  of  sin  and  re- 
pentance and  salvation  through  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ, 
though  they  may  hold  forth  at  liberty  on  the  brotherhood 
of  man.  The  more  human  fellowship  is  magnified  the 
better,  if  in  doing  so  men  are  led  to  forget  Jesus  and  the 
Cross.  The  devil  is  in  favor  of  any  good  thing  that  will 
make  men  forget  the  best.  He  is  content  with  any  gospel 
that  does  not  ring  clear  on  the  meaning  of  the  Cross.  "Lib- 
erality" suits  him  better  than  bloody  persecution  if  it  hides 
Christ  more  effectively  from  the  hearts  of  sinners.  The 
most  cunning  wile  of  the  devil  in  our  day  is  this  sleight 
of  hand  by  which  he  has,  so  to  speak,  become  the  presiding 
ofl&cer  of  a  world-commission  for  the  abatement  of  re- 
ligious prejudice. 

The  lion  preaches  tenderness  to  Iambs.  Bigotry  and  in- 
tolerance deserve  to  be  destroyed,  but  when  the  lion  begins 
to  admonish  lambs  against  cruelty,  even  lambs  may  be 
excused  from  hiding  away  from  so  strange  a  convert  to 
tenderness  and  love.  There  is  something  wrong  when  many 
who  have  most  ignored  the  Christ,  God's  greatest  and  chief- 
est  expression  of  love,  in  the  name  of  love  and  liberty  chide 
for  bigotry  and  hate  those  who  have  humbly  and  sincerely, 
if  imperfectly,  surrendered  themselves  to  the  love  and  mercy 
of  God.  To  illustrate:  Even  the  most  guileless  and  least 
subtle  may  be  pardoned  if  they  distrust  and  wonder  when 
the  hierarchy,  with  nearly  every  page  of  its  history  stained 


138  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs,  sets  up  in  America  a  "com- 
mission on  religious  prejudice"  to  foster  good  will  and  tol- 
erance among  the  religious  bodies!  The  Saviour  has  said. 
"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  but  our  tolerant  age 
would  not  have  us  call  attention  to  fruits  of  deceit  and  spir- 
itual treachery  in  powerful  quarters.  Our  age  cries,  Peace, 
peace.  The  devil  of  intolerance  in  order  not  to  be  without 
a  job  has  arrayed  himself  as  an  angel  of  light,  and  many 
there  be  whom  he  is  deceiving  in  his  new  role  as  the  chief- 
est  sponsor  of  liberality. 

Paul,  as  a  witness.  There  are  modem  advocates  of 
soft-spoken  tolerance  toward  Antichrist  teachings,  who, 
under  the  cry,  "Back  to  Christ!"  are  seeking  to  discredit 
the  witness  of  Paul  to  the  character  of  Christ  and  to  the 
sacrificial  offering  which  Christ  made.  They  would  like 
to  be  able  to  get  rid  of  Paul's  manly  defense  of  a  pure 
gospel  and  his  insistence  that  it  shall  be  preached,  but  while 
men  still  hold  on  to  God  and  his  revelation  they  will  hear 
Paul  rather  than  his  modern  detractors.  Paul  loved  men. 
He  wrote  to  the  Thessalonians  (1  Thes.  3:12):  "The  Lord 
make  you  increase  and  abound  in  love  one  toward  another 
and  to  all  men."  But  Paul  clearly  set  forth  that  Christian 
love  must  exhibit  itself  in  something  more  honest  and  manly 
than  man-pleasing  and  flattering  words.  To  the  Thessa- 
lonians he  wrote:  "We  were  bold  in  our  God  to  speak 
unto  you  the  gospel  of  God  with  much  contention."  Con- 
tention! If  there  is  any  one  thing  the  modem  spirit  can- 
not tolerate  in  religion,  it  is  contention  for  the  truth.  Any 
contention,  all  contention  about  religion  is  taboo.  The 
truth  is  fostered  by  discussion  in  any  other  realm,  but  the 
modern  spirit  of  tolerance  is  madly  intolerant  toward  such 
discussion  in  the  realm  of  religion.    There  must  have  been 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  139 

prototypes  of  the  modern  intolerant  sponsors  of  toleration, 
for  Paul  adds  to  the  words  quoted  above,  "not  as  pleasing 
men,  but  God,  which  trieth  our  hearts."  According  to  the 
Apostle,  the  precept  to  love  all  men  was  consistent  with 
faithfully  contending  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints.  Elsewhere  Paul  writes:  "Do  I  seek  to  please 
men?  for  if  I  yet  pleased  men,  I  should  not  be  the  servant 
of  Christ."  In  matters  of  form  and  custom  he  gladly  be- 
came all  things  to  all  men  that  he  might  win  them  to  Christ. 
In  matters  of  principle,  of  teaching  the  revealed  will  of 
God,  he  declared  that  an  eflFort  to  please  men  by  softening 
the  truth  of  God  and  failing  to  bear  testimony  to  it  would 
be  tantamount  to  turning  his  back  on  Christ.  Intolerance 
has  no  place  in  religion.  Neither  has  a  cowardly  refusal  to 
testify  to  the  truth  of  Christ,  in  order  to  please  business  as- 
sociates, or  further  social  or  political  reputation,  or  secure 
the  applause  of  the  world.  It  is  a  far  call  from  the  stake 
and  the  wheel,  where  martyrs  of  the  faith  gave  up  their 
lives  for  the  testimony  of  the  faith,  to  the  soft-spoken  and 
specious  pleas  of  the  present-day  liberalist.  But  it  is  the 
same  old  devil  of  intolerance,  leagued  with  seven  other 
devils  and  clad  in  shining  garments  to  please  the  modern 
eye.  If  the  reader  desires  proof,  let  him  consider  the  fanat- 
ical hatred  which  many  of  these  "tolerant"  persons  exhibit 
toward  a  faithful  teaching  of  the  truths  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. A  toleration  which  is  born  of  the  love  of  Christ  is 
not  of  the  kind  which  sneers  at  and  caricatures  any  honest 
and  faithful  effort  to  teach  and  obey  the  revealed  word  of 
God,  whether  that  teaching  agrees  with  what  men  say  and 
want  or  not. 

"Will  not  endnre  sound  doctrine."     "For  the  time  vyrill 
come  when  they  will  not  endure  sound  doctrine;  but  after 


140  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

their  own  lusts  shall  they  heap  to  themselves  teachers,  hav- 
ing itching  ears."  These  words  of  Paul  have  had  many  a 
fulfilment,  but  none  so  impressive  or  so  general  as  at  the 
present  time.  In  the  Dark  Ages  of  Europe,  a  corrupt  Roman 
Catholicism  dominated  the  religious  world,  and  the  faithful 
preachers  of  a  pure  gospel  hid  in  corners  and  caves.  But 
that  dark  spectacle  is  less  impressive  than  the  situation 
to-day,  when  enlightenment  and  civilization  have  spread 
among  the  nations.  Now  millions  have  an  open  Bible,  and 
evangelical  faith  has  spread  among  multitudes.  It  is  exactly 
in  this  day  of  the  greatest  apparent  opportunity  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  the  world  is  witnessing  an  unprecedented  re- 
vulsion against  Christian  doctrine.  Not  a  few  learned  men 
and  also  many  of  the  unlearned  have  developed  an  almost 
violent  antipathy  to  the  very  word  doctrine.  Romanism, 
that  historic  hierarchy  which  binds  the  faith  of  the  people 
to  such  interpretations  as  it  chooses  to  ladle  out  to  them, 
beholds  this  unspiritual  ferment  among  the  freer  evangel- 
icals, and  chuckles  in  unholy  mirth,  congratulating  itself 
that  it,  at  least,  holds  its  own  in  such  old  paths  as  it  has 
made.  Rome  declares  that  the  boasted  liberty  of  the  evan- 
gelicals is  merely  a  destructive  license,  and  points  with  a 
satisfaction  which  it  does  not  try  to  disguise  at  what  it 
dubs  the  speedy  breaking  down  of  Protestantism.  We  need 
not  be  much  disturbed  at  the  prognostications  of  the  priests ; 
but  what  shall  we  do  with  the  patent  facts  that  confront  us? 
That  secular  newspapers  and  magazines  should  set  them- 
selves against  any  Scripture  teachings  upon  which  all  the 
professed  followers  of  Christ  are  not  agreed,  is  not  surpris- 
ing. It  is  only  an  exhibition  of  intelligent  selfishness,  which 
easily  passes  current  with  the  unthinking  for  a  commend- 
able liberality,  and  wins  the  advantages  of  the  favor  thus 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  141 

gained.  Nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  sinful  world  should 
stumble  over  the  difierences  between  Christian  denomina- 
tions.  It  is  one  of  the  most  patent  excuses  it  can  discover, 
and  its  removal  would  only  make  room  for  another.  The 
surprising  thing  is  the  superficiality  which  some  reUgious 
teachers  exhibit  in  capitulating  before  this  liberalistic  spirit 
of  the  age,  the  full  fruition  of  which  would  be  the  surren- 
der of  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Will  not  have  the  atoning  Christ  These  false  faiths  are 
more  numerous  and  successful  to-day  than  at  any  former 
time.  Though  some  of  them  use  the  broad  spirit  of  the 
day  as  a  springboard  from  which  to  project  themselves  into 
public  favor,  every  one  of  them  has  its  own  system  of 
teaching  to  which  it  requires  assent.  Or,  if  its  basis  of 
appeal  is  an  anarchistic  revolt  against  all  authority,  it  is 
as  intolerant  of  those  who  contend  for  right  authority  as 
the  narrowest  sect  which  ever  excited  its  derisive  contempt. 
Except  Holy  Rollerism  and  Romanism,  practically  every- 
one of  these  false  faiths  agree,  in  one  thing:  They  agree 
that  they  will  not  have  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  as  the  atone- 
ment for  sin.  Holy  Rollerism  is  a  gospel  of  ignorance  and 
emotion,  thriving  mainly  on  the  prejudices  of  the  people, 
but  it  does  not  repudiate  the  efficacy  of  the  blood  of  Christ. 
But  Unitarianism,  Mormonism,  Russellism,  Universalism, 
Christian  Science,  Emmanuelism,  Theosophy  and  New 
Thought,  and  the  "New  Religion,"  which  was  announced  by 
a  learned  ex-president  of  a  highly  celebrated  American  uni- 
versity, are  a  unit  in  rejecting  Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord. 
Everyone  of  them  makes  some  kind  of  place  for  Jesus  in 
its  system,  no  two  of  them  agreeing  just  what  he  was,  but 
they  all  hate  the  sacrificial  atonement,  and  with  one  voice 
cry  out  that  they  will  not  have  the  crucified  and  rejected 
Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord. 


142        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Antichruts.  The  Scriptures  teach  that  (I  John  2:18) 
there  are  many  Antichrists,  and  they  tell  how  we  may  know 
them.  I  John  2 :  22 :  "Who  is  a  liar,  but  he  that  denieth 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ?  He  is  Antichrist,  that  denieth 
the  Father  and  the  Son."  2  John  7:  "For  many  deceivers 
are  entered  into  the  world,  who  confess  not  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh.  This  is  a  deceiver  and  an 
Antichrist."  Antichrist  is  whoever  or  whatever  denies 
the  deity  and  sacrificial  atonement  of  our  Lord  Jesus.  It 
is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  discussion  to  try  to  throw  light 
on  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord.  But  it  cannot  fail  to 
impress  thoughtful  Christians  that  there  are  more  Anti' 
christs  springing  up  in  more  unsuspected  quarters  to-day, 
than  ever  before,  and  that  the  Scriptures  warn  us  that  this 
is  an  omen  of  the  last  days.  1  Tim.  4:1:  "Now  the  Spirit 
speaketh  expressly  that  in  the  latter  times  some  shall  depart 
from  the  faith,  giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits,  and  doc- 
trines of  devils;"  2  Tim.  3:13:  "Evil  men  and  seducers 
shall  wax  worse  and  worse,  deceiving  and  being  deceived." 
It  may  not  be  agreeable  to  an  amiable  optimism  to  have 
thrust  upon  its  attention  the  evidences  of  an  increase  of 
Antichrist  teachings  under  the  guise  of  religion.  But,  if 
there  are  many  among  us  who  do  reprobate  any  honest  ef- 
fort to  present  the  facts  on  this  great  basal  doctrine,  how- 
ever unpleasant  they  may  be,  this  will  in  itself  be  a  startling 
evidence  that  we  have  reached  the  age  when  "they  will  not 
endure  sound  doctrine."  In  addition  to  the  roll  of  partic- 
ular Antichrist  sects  which  I  have  called,  and  which  might 
easily  be  lengthened,  consider  the  significance  of  the  fact 
that  many  of  those  who  profess  the  name  of  Christ  are  be- 
coming more  concerned  not  to  differ  with  each  other,  than 
they  are  to  be  loyal  to  Christ.    Consider  the  amazing  sweep 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  143 

of  social  service  propaganda  in  recent  years,  and  what  it 
means  that  many  a  pulpit  is  becoming  a  more  expert  voice 
on  a  moral  and  physical  clean-up  program,  than  it  is  on 
men's  hopelessly  sinful  nature,  God's  holiness,  and  Christ's 
sacrificial  love.  Consider  how  the  devil  took  social  service, 
a  good  thing,  and  made  it  more  damaging  to  real  spirituality 
than  bar-rooms  and  brothels,  by  getting  good  people  so 
busy  with  secondary  benefits,  that  they  forgot  to  hold  up 
the  God-appointed  and  only  availing  source  of  all  spiritual 
good.  Consider  how  in  Germany,  under  the  astute  guid- 
ance of  its  ruling  class,  a  whole  nation  has  for  a  period  of 
years  been  deliberately  educating  itself  away  from  the 
Christ,  because  it  could  not  otherwise  be  so  callous  and 
brutal  and  cruel  in  war  as  it  had  determined  to  be.  Con- 
sider the  ceaseless  clamour  in  America  for  a  formal  Church 
Union,  led  mainly  by  religious  groups  which  have  the  most 
signally  failed  to  hold  up  the  sacrificial  Christ  before  the 
people.  This  clamour,  almost  without  exception,  proves  its 
insincerity  by  deliberately  confusing  Christian  unity,  which 
is  needed,  with  Church  Union,  which  would  be  an  unmiti- 
gated curse,  if  acquired  at  the  sacrifice  by  even  one  of  the 
participants  of  any  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Book.  Consider 
the  angel-of-light  plausibility  with  which  these  strategists 
set  about  breaking  down  the  contents  of  the  faith  of  the 
people  in  the  name  of  brotherly  love  and  efficiency,  and 
how  blinder  than  a  bat  they  are  to  the  awful  lessons  of 
history  on  this  matter  of  an  ecclesiastical  autocracy.  A  fair 
valuation  of  such  indications  as  the  above  can  hardly  fail  to 
convince  the  student  that  our  age  is  gravely  beset  by 
danger  from  false  faiths. 

The  leaven  of  science.     Modern  science  has  not  estab- 
lished any  facts  that  discredit  the  Christian  religion.     It 


144  THE  CALL  OP  THE  SOUTH 

has  made  discoveries  in  the  realm  of  matter  which  have 
greatly  changed  the  conditions  of  Hfe.  but  neither  its 
X-rays,  its  microscope,  nor  its  hjrpothesis  about  the  origin 
of  life,  have  been  able  to  uncover  the  secrets  of  the  spir- 
itual realm.  Science  has  neither  disproven  or  proven  the 
facts  of  the  spiritual  life.  By  his  wisdom  man  does  not 
find  God.  But  the  false  assimiptions  of  some  scientists 
have  demoralized  the  faith  of  many,  and  the  fruits  of  sci- 
entific discovery  have  so  enlarged  the  reach  and  power  of 
our  material  Hfe  that  only  a  virile  Christian  life  can  hope 
to  dominate  it  for  good.  The  chief  contribution  of  science 
to  the  present  spiritual  crisis,  declares  Bergson,  the  French 
philosopher,  has  been  to  enlarge  the  reach  of  man's  body. 
Telescopes  and  microscopes  have  increased  the  power  of 
our  eyes.  Telephones  have  stretched  our  hearing  to  some 
three  thousand  miles.  Telegraphs  have  made  our  voices 
sound  around  the  earth.  Locomotives,  automobiles,  and 
steamships,  better  than  seven-league  boots,  have  multiplied 
the  speed  and  power  of  our  feet  French  big  guns  have 
elongated  the  blows  of  our  fists  from  two  feet  to  twenty- 
five  miles.  Man  never  had  such  a  body  since  the  world 
began.  The  age  of  giants  had  nothing  to  compare  with 
this.  But  man's  soul — there  the  failure  lies.  We  have  not 
grown  spirits  great  enough  to  handle  our  greatened  bodies. 
There  lies  the  secret  of  the  deep  discontent  in  our  times, 
which  physical  comforts  and  intellectual  advances  are 
powerless  to  prevent.  This  is  the  womb  from  which  are 
born  many  of  the  false  faiths  of  our  day.  Christian  faith 
which  was  so  weak  it  did  not  do  as  it  should  its  saving 
work  in  a  far  less  intense  and  absorbing  world-environ- 
ment ,  becomes  frightened  and  discouraged  when  con- 
fronted by  tides  of  worldliness  many  times  more  powerful. 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  145 

Religious  quacks  see  their  opportunity;  Antichrist  sets 
himself  forth  in  various  fair-seeming  embodiments.  The 
power  of  the  omnipotent  God  is  available  for  the  churches, 
if  they  will  claim  it  through  faith,  and  in  this  power  they 
can  overcome.  But  we  must  have  this  power  in  great 
measure.  The  innermost  necessity  of  mankind  is  a  spir- 
itual life  which  can  handle  our  new  scientific  acquisitions. 
Our  deepest  need  is  a  new  access  of  spiritual  vision  and 
power.     Without  it  we  are  utterly  undone. 

The  faith  that  saved  us.  The  South  has  been  freer  from 
the  scourge  of  false  faiths  than  other  sections  of  the  coun- 
try. Almost  entirely  its  people  have  been  led  to  Christ  by 
the  evangelical  bodies.  With  certain  other  bodies  strong  in 
a  few  Southern  States,  the  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  Pres- 
byterians have  been  the  outstanding  religious  groups  which 
led  the  people  in  every  section  of  the  South.  Differing 
at  understood  points  between  themselves,  each  of  these 
three  groups  has  not  failed  in  the  South  to  hold  up  the 
crucified  Christ  as  God's  sacrifice  for  sin,  the  only  hope  of 
the  redemption  of  the  souls  of  men.  This  faith  has  been 
the  more  easily  safeguarded  in  the  South  through  the 
failure  of  alien  immigration  with  its  strange  and  varie- 
gated creeds  to  come  to  this  section  in  large  masses. 
Perhaps  this  sense  of  safety  has  in  part  been  respon- 
sible for  the  lamentable  neglect  of  Baptists  and  Meth- 
odists adequately  to  nurture  in  the  Christian  life  a  large 
proportion  of  the  masses  they  have  evangelized.  They 
have  not  failed  with  holy  passion  to  testify  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  but  they  have  largely  done  so  after  the  insufficient 
manner  of  the  once-a-month  pioneer  church.  But  Hfe  has 
become  tenfold  more  intense  in  the  environment  of  the 


146  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

church,  and  new  and  strange  currents  of  thought  are  bat- 
tling for  acceptance.  Even  in  the  remotest  community,  the 
voice  of  the  Russellite  and  the  Mormon  and  the  Holy 
Roller  is  heard,  and  the  theology  of  the  magazine  and 
the  Sunday  supplement  has  penetrated.  Also  the  mul- 
tiplication of  means  of  intercommunication  has  brought 
into  the  quietest  nooks  the  yeast  of  the  world.  As  usual, 
the  first  forces  which  have  come  are  largely  flotsam  and 
jetsam.  The  faith  which  saved  the  South  and  made  life 
pure  and  sweet  was  the  doctrine  of  sin  and  of  the  atoning 
blood  of  Christ.  The  men  who  preached  it  sometimes  used 
their  pulpits  as  forums  from  which  to  excoriate  each  other's 
alleged  doctrinal  infirmities.  To-day  we  complacently  con- 
gratulate ourselves  that  we  do  not  preach  against  what  we 
believe  are  the  errors  of  others,  while  some  of  us  work  over- 
time to  exalt  human  fraternity.  As  between  the  gospel  of 
our  fathers,  with  their  inflrmities,  and  this  gospel  of  human 
love  and  fellowship  before  humble  repentance  before  God 
and  obedience  to  him,  if  we  had  to  choose  either,  we 
should  choose  that  of  our  fathers.  Their  gospel  saved 
souls.  The  new  gospel,  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  save 
lives,  but  neglecting  the  one  dynamic  of  God  which  can 
save  either  a  soul  or  a  life,  makes  a  fair  show  in  the  flesh 
but  really  fails  in  all. 

Where  we  are  weakest  The  weakest  point  of  evangel- 
ical religion  in  the  South,  as  it  confronts  the  false  faiths 
which  would  mislead  and  destroy,  has  been  in  its  failure 
to  project  a  program  of  church  service  and  life  adequate 
to  save  the  lives,  as  well  as  the  souls,  of  the  people.  Ours  is 
a  dynamic  age.  People  want  to  do  something.  In  every 
realm  but  the  religious,  we  have  wonderfully  accelerated 
the  pace.   But  the  rank  and  file  among  our  church  members 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  147 

have  not  been  so  nurtured  that  the  religious  life  is  capable 
of  the  larger  outlook  and  the  intense  service  which  would 
match  the  world  about  them.  Our  danger  is  that  in  a  do- 
much  age,  our  people,  with  a  do-little  religious  life,  will  be- 
come restive  and  be  captured  by  the  first  blustering  and 
pretentious  preachment  which  promises  to  do  more  than  the 
churches.  Baptists  and  Methodists,  before  God,  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  success  of  Holy  Rollers,  Mormons,  Rus- 
sellites,  and  other  false  sects  in  the  South.  The  people  ac- 
cepted Christ  under  our  preachers,  and  we  left  them  unnur- 
tured, particularly  in  the  rural  districts.  Therefore  they  be- 
came food  for  the  first  plausible  peripatetic  vender  of 
strange  doctrines.  If  we  had  taught  them,  it  would  not  have 
been  so.  It  is  not  that  we  need  with  unfruitful  clamor 
and  bustle  to  urge  our  people  to  do  more  religious  work. 
We  just  need,  line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  to 
teach  and  nurture  the  new  life  of  the  convert,  so  that  he 
shall  not  be  blown  here  and  there  by  every  wind  of  doc- 
trine. If  we  shall  plant  the  seed  and  cultivate  the  crop, 
the  harvest  will  come,  manifold.  But  so  often  we  have 
planted  the  seed  and  left  them  to  fight  unaided  with  briars 
and  grass  and  noxious  weeds. 

Unionism.  Church  Unionism  by  its  own  motion  would 
never  qualify  as  a  false  faith.  Perhaps  it  gets  its  great- 
est satisfaction  in  the  thought  of  its  imposing  show  of 
breadth  and  charity.  From  superior  heights  it  can  look 
down  upon  the  various  Christian  bodies  and  label  their 
peculiarities,  as  having  risen  for  lack  of  its  broad  and  deep 
understanding  of  truth.  There  is  danger  that  the  people 
on  whose  faith  Unionism  makes  its  attack  shall  be  confused 
by  its  brave  and  plausible  talk.  If  they  are,  it  will  lead 
most  of  them,  not  into  Unionism,  but  into  giving  up  their 


148        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

church  allegiance  altogether.  Strange  to  say,  much  as  the 
Unionists  appear  to  know,  it  has  not  seemed  to  dawn  on 
one  of  them  that  the  success  of  their  theory  would  be  the 
destruction  of  the  faith  of  many.  This  obtuseness  alone 
should  make  sensible  people  fear  the  doctrine  of  Unionism. 
We  need  more  Christian  unity,  but  it  is  as  far  as  the  poles 
from  Church  Union.  There  is  another  difference  not 
dreamed  of  in  all  the  philosophy  of  Unionism.  Its  failure 
to  make  this  distinction  convicts  it  of  being  an  advocate  of 
a  party,  instead  of  the  sponsor  of  a  principle.  The  spirit 
of  Christian  unity  makes  one  respect  the  convictions  of  his 
brother  in  Christ,  instead  of  cultivating  movements  and 
uttering  words  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  belittle  and  make 
untenable  and  contemptible  all  he  holds  from  which  the 
crowd  differs.  After  all  the  fair  show  of  plausible  words, 
the  first  Christian  body  is  to  appear  which  has  shown 
itself  willing  to  give  up  a  single  article  of  its  belief  for  the 
sake  of  union.  When  one  does  appear,  it  may  be  time  for 
us  to  have  more  respect  for  and  patience  with  the  Church 
Unionists  than  they  have  yet  shown  themselves  to  merit. 
Church  Union  by  elimination  and  compression  would  offend 
the  consciences  of  millions  of  God's  people,  and  open  wide 
the  door  to  unbelief.  Christian  unity  by  inclusion  and  com- 
prehension we  have  now  in  spirit,  though  the  Church  Union- 
ists loudly  deny  it.  We  are  warranted  in  looking  upon  this 
preachment  as  a  vehicle  of  confusion  and  of  minifying  of 
the  inviolability  of  a  "thus  saith  the  Lord."  So  far,  it  is 
not  only  the  friend  of  every  false  faith,  but  is  in  itself  false 
to  the  faith. 

Salvation  by  syndicate.  Those  who  fan  the  fires  of 
Unionism  are  busier  to-day  than  ever  before.  They  think 
they  see  in  the  World  War  the  opportunity  to   rout  de- 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  149 

nominationalism.  Nearly  all  the  money  for  the  co-opera- 
tive welfare  activities  among  the  soldiers  is  coming  from 
the  members  of  the  Christian  denominations.  But  there 
is  no  squeamishness  of  conscience  on  the  part  of  the 
Unionists  against  using  the  power  this  money  gives  as  a 
means  to  discredit  the  denominations.  Unionism  usually 
does  not  even  treat  the  Christian  bodies  with  the  respect 
to  call  them  denominations.  It  better  likes  the  belittling 
flavor  of  the  words  "sect"  and  "sectarianism."  Bishop 
Warren  Candler,  of  the  Southern  Methodists,  recently 
wrote  an  article  to  show  that  salvation  by  syndicate  is 
doomed.  It  would  be  doomed,  even  if  it  succeeded.  Its 
effort  is  not  to  bring  the  inner  life  into  reconciliation  with 
God,  but  to  build  up  an  imposing  syndicate  of  the  religious 
forces  of  the  world.  Its  success  would  impress  the  world 
with  its  might  and  power;  it  would  be  an  eye-filling  achieve- 
ment. But  this  kind  of  impression  never  has  led  and  never 
will  lead  a  single  soul  to  God.  The  success  of  this  em- 
bitious  scheme  would  make  American  Christianity  as  de- 
void of  power  as  is  that  of  most  of  the  European  countries, 
where  immense  energy  has  been  spent  on  trying  to  secure 
and  maintain  a  single  ecclesiastical  machine.  Unionism 
would  reduce  all  religion  to  a  subjective  and  senseless 
sentiment.  Virile  sentiment  is  called  into  existence  only 
by  some  truth,  to  which  it  more  or  less  accurately  cor- 
responds. And  its  force  is  in  exact  proportion  to  the  power 
of  the  belief  from  which  it  springs.  In  the  leveling  down 
of  belief  to  which  Unionism  is  of  necessity  committed  there 
could  not  but  come  a  bankruptcy  of  noble  sentiment  in 
the  soul.  When  men  suppress  their  religious  convictions 
with  the  hope  of  getting  together  on  some  platform  of  sen- 
timent, they  will  find  nothing  on  which  to  stand.     On  the 


150        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

other  hand,  they  are  the  most  religious  who  most  earnestly 
maintain  definite  principles  of  belief  in  God's  revelation. 
Concerning  this  Bishop  Candler  says:  "This  explains  why 
the  most  vigorous  Christianity  in  the  world  is  now  found 
in  the  United  States,  where  the  most  energetic  denomina- 
tionalism  has  prevailed  from  the  foundation  of  the  Colonies. 
In  Europe  all  sorts  of  schemes  of  uniformity  have  been 
enforced,  until  there  are  to-day  in  our  country  representa- 
tives of  European  countries  who  confess  that  the  lands 
from  which  they  come  are  spiritually  bankrupt,  and  they 
are  begging  the  American  churches  to  help  them  lest  Chris- 
tianity perish  from  among  them.  The  result  might  have 
been  expected.  The  suppression  of  individual  belief  in 
order  to  preserve  a  monotonous  conformity  has  paralyzed 
faith  and  quenched  the  zeal  by  which  Christian  effort  is 
quickened."  Unionism  holds  forth  on  the  wastefulness  of 
"sectarianism."  Granting  that  there  is  some  wastefulness, 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  standards  of  syndicated  ef- 
ficiency in  business,  it  is  yet  true  that  the  submergence  of 
all  the  churches  beneath  a  flood  of  incoherent  sentiment- 
alism  would  be  far  worse;  it  would  be  ruinous.  The 
Christian  family  is  indefensible  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
efficiency  expert.  But  it  would  be  an  ominous  day  for 
America  when  our  people  should  give  up  their  homes  for 
the  more  economical  apartment  houses.  There  are  values 
of  soul  and  heart  which  are  not  *set  down  in  all  the  figures 
of  the  efficiency  man.  To  put  out  of  existence  or  even  to 
discredit  the  churches  of  Christ,  which  have  put  America 
ahead  of  all  the  world  as  a  Christian  nation,  for  a  huge 
ecclesiastical  apartment  house,  is  a  proposition,  monstrous 
and  abominable  in  the  sight  of  God  and  devout  men.  It 
lends  itself  admirably  to  the  purposes  of  the  various  Anti- 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  151 

christ  movements  of  our  day.  But  there  are  indications 
that  this  scheme  will  be  even  more  relentlessly  pressed  in 
the  next  few  years  than  it  has  been  until  the  present. 
The  people  of  God  should  fortify  themselves  for  the  con- 
flict. The  denominations  will  not  come  through  it  without 
the  loss  of  some  whose  religious  convictions  are  weak,  and 
who  are  infatuated  with  the  bigness  and  plausibility  of 
the  Unionist  scheme. 

"After  the  World  War."  Unionism  makes  hay  out  of 
whatever  grows  or  happens  under  the  sun.  It  was  inev- 
itable that  it  should  have  an  on-the-spot  interpretation  of 
the  World  War  to  prove  that  the  troublesome  denominations 
are  done  for.  The  Germans  do  not  find  more  evidences 
that  their  enemies  are  whipped  than  Unionism  finds  that 
denominationalism  is  dead.  Like  the  Germans,  Unionism 
seems  obtusely  aggravated  when  the  enemy,  whom  its  soph- 
istry has  proven  defeated,  still  persists  in  living  and  fight- 
ing. The  Unionists  are  now  saying:  "When  this  war  is 
over,  denominationalism  will  be  dead.  The  ex-soldiers  will 
not  ask  what  you  believe,  but  will  remember  what  you  did 
or  did  not  do  for  them  at  the  front."  Hearty  recognition 
is  here  given  to  the  importance  of  the  Christian  bodies  serv- 
ing the  spiritual  needs  of  the  soldiers.  We  sincerely  rejoice 
and  devoutly  give  thanks  at  the  indications  that  they  will 
be  safeguarded  and  aided  as  few  troops  have  ever  been. 
But  if  the  future  of  religious  belief  is  to  be  determined  by 
what  the  soldiers  say  when  they  come  home,  and  if  what 
they  say  is  to  be  determined  by  how  we  have  ministered 
to  their  physical  welfare  and  comfort  at  the  front,  it  affords 
the  best  chance  the  devil  has  had  in  our  age  to  ensnare 
in  sin's  net  the  headstrong,  fair-show-in-the-flesh  religionists 
of  our  day.    All  the  devil  will  have  to  do,  is  to  encourage 


152  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

some  smart  sect,  that  has  more  cunning  than  godHness,  to 
do  more  for  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers  than  others.  This 
sect  may  reject  the  sacrificial  atonement  of  Christ  and  feed 
the  poor  lads  in  the  trenches  on  cheap  heroics  about  their 
sufferings  being  of  like  value  to  those  of  the  Christ,  but  if  it 
helps  our  boys  in  their  material  needs,  they  will,  forsooth, 
make  its  religion  theirs  and  the  world's,  after  the  war  is 
over!  Unless  true  religion  and  the  spirit  of  Christ  shall  de- 
sert this  world,  the  religion  which  will  stand  the  test  after 
the  war  is  that  which  shall,  in  war  and  in  peace,  at  the 
front  and  at  home,  obey  God  and  magnify  the  crucified  and 
enthroned  Christ!  If  men  are  so  blinded  that  they  cannot 
and  will  not  see  him  who  died  for  our  sins,  but  only  his  hu- 
manitarian works,  it  will  indeed  be  time  for  denominational 
systems  built  up  around  Jesus  as  Lord  and  Saviour  to  give 
place  to  a  Unionism  which  puts  the  verdict  of  ex-soldiers 
before  the  response  of  the  conscience  to  the  revealed  will 
of  God.  If,  indeed,  we  shall  have  to  face  this  colossal  folly 
after  the  war,  let  every  true  child  of  God  gird  his  armor  on 
and  be  ready  to  stand  for  Christ,  against  the  subtle  wiles 
of  the  devil. 

Superficial  testimony.  The  sons  of  America  had  not 
been  long  assembled  in  the  army  camps  at  home  and  in 
France  before  the  public  was  given  repeated  testimony  to 
the  effect  that  the  religious  workers  among  the  soldier  boys 
were  not  able  to  accomplish  anything  preaching  the  old 
doctrines  of  grace.  And  the  reports  which  discredited  the 
usefulness  of  the  New  Testament  doctrines  invariably  set 
forth  that  the  human  fellowship  of  the  religious  worker  and 
the  humanitarian  services  he  rendered,  did  accomplish  great 
and  good  results.  This  insistence,  in  connection  with  re- 
ligious war  work,  that  the  power  of  the  gospel  is  in  good 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  153 

deeds,  rather  than  in  reconciHation  with  God  through  the 
atoning  blood  of  Christ,  bade  fair  to  force  speedily  a  clean- 
cut  issue  between  salvation  by  environment  and  salvation 
by  faith.  The  various  Christian  bodies  in  America,  by  the 
President's  order,  have  done  their  work  in  the  army  through 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  leaders  are  on  record  as 
being  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  denominationalism,  which 
is  here  practically  identical  with  the  principles  of  faith  in 
the  New  Testament  doctrines.  By  far  the  larger  number 
of  persons  who  contributed  the  great  sums  of  money  for 
the  use  of  this  institution  in  army  welfare  work,  are  mem- 
bers of  the  denominational  churches.  If  they  thought  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  would  countenance  a  propaganda  to  discredit 
the  preaching  of  Scripture  doctrines,  their  zeal  for  its  wel- 
fare work  would  greatly  abate.  Since  the  leaders  of  this 
agency  are  on  record  as  favoring  the  denominational  prin- 
ciple, it  would  seem  that  they  would  be  anxious  to  correct 
insistent  rumors,  in  connection  with  religious  efforts  in  the 
army,  to  the  effect  that  the  power  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  is  dead,  when  offered  to  a  soldier.  The  teaching  con- 
cerning the  suffering  and  enthroned  Christ  is  a  doctrine, 
the  great  basal  doctrine.  For  a  church  or  other  organiza- 
tion, responsible  for  religious  effort,  to  allow  to  go  unre- 
buked  rumors  of  the  worthlessness  in  its  efforts  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Christ,  is  to  lend  itself  to  the  work  of  Anti- 
christ. Editor  Z.  T.  Cody,  of  The  Baptist  Courier,  on 
this  point  writes:  "In  religious  work  the  worker  gets  what 
he  gives.  If  the  worker  is  a  deeply  spiritual  man,  who 
loves  Christ  and  most  earnestly  believes  in  Christ's  salva- 
tion, he  will  find  depths  in  men  that  will  never  be  found 
by  a  worker  who  has  a  shallow  religious  nature  and  who 
has  no  doctrinal  convictions.    The  man  who  has  a  cigarette 


154  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

religion  finds  a  cigarette  religion  in  others.  The  man  who 
has  found  peace  in  Christ  finds  in  men  a  response  to  that 
great  reaHty.  We  must  bear  this  in  mind  when  we  read 
the  testimony  of  any  religious  worker  as  to  what  our 
soldiers  take  to.  Those  religious  workers  who  are  earnest, 
evangelical  Christians  bear  a  very  different  testimony  as 
to  what  is  going  on  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  soldiers." 
Testimony  which  is  true  to  God  and  man.  It  is  true  that 
the  testimony  of  a  religious  worker  who  does  not  know 
Christ,  may  he  not  be  expected  to  tell  of  the  hunger  of 
men's  hearts  for  salvation.  Such  are  blind  guides;  it 
is  to  be  expected  that  they  shall  give  testimony  only  to 
such  values  as  the  world  and  Christians  hold  in  common, 
and  not  to  those  which  are  distinctly  Christian.  The  boys 
of  our  country  had  been  in  the  camps  of  the  army  less 
than  nine  months  when  these  words  were  written.  But 
there  was  already  competent  and  abundant  testimony  that 
the  young  soldiers  were  susceptible  to  the  gospel  story  to 
a  degree  which  was  the  delight  and  the  marvel  of  prac- 
tically every  minister  of  Christ  who  spoke  before  them. 
Many  thousands  of  them  made  a  profession  of  faith  and 
united  with  churches,  who  had  seemed  indifferent  to  the  ap- 
peal of  Christ  under  ordinary  conditions.  Their  guileless 
simplicity  and  patent  hunger  for  a  foundation  on  which 
they  could  rest  their  hearts,  were  even  the  means  of  con- 
verting some  preachers,  who  had  allowed  themselves  to 
fall  into  the  husk-feeding  spirit  of  their  lukewarm  churches. 
Mell  Trotter,  the  well-known  entertainer,  carried  with  him 
on  an  itinerary  of  the  camps  a  male  quartette.  At  first 
these  fellows  sang  the  gay  and  flippant  songs  of  vaudeville. 
The  great  crowds  before  them  sat  unmoved.  Then,  by 
chance,  they  sang  a  simple  gospel  song.    A  great  wave  of 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  155 

feeling  visibly  swept  over  the  gathered  crowd  of  boys; 
they  were  melted  and  spellbound.  After  the  performance, 
some  of  the  men  asked  the  musicians  why  they  did  not 
sing  more  of  the  gospel  songs.  Mr.  Trotter  told  this  story 
publicly,  and  declared  that  never  after  that  did  either  he 
or  his  singers  throw  away  their  opportunity  on  merely  en- 
tertaining, which  was  so  ripe  for  deeper  and  better  ends. 
Groups  of  soldiers  off  duty  were  seen  to  go  into  a  movie 
show,  where  the  usual  love  story  was  being  depicted,  only 
to  get  up  and  come  away  after  a  brief  sitting.  One  of  the 
camp  pastors  followed  up  three  of  four  of  these,  and  asked 
them  why  they  left.  "Mister,"  said  one  of  the  boys,  "we 
don't  care  anything  about  all  that  make-belief  stuff.  We 
are  lonely,  and  we  want  somebody  to  talk  to  who  can  help 
us."  Such  testimony  is  abundant  from  camp  pastors, 
showing  that,  so  far  from  the  superficial  devices  of  human- 
itarian kindness  being  all  the  soldier  boys  want,  their  hearts 
are  exceptionably  tender  and  open  to  deeper  approach. 
The  Church  Unionists  appear  to  have  great  hopes  that 
the  World  War  will  be  followed  by  that  formal  ecclesias- 
tical union  of  Christendom  which  has  so  persistently  dis- 
turbed their  dreams.  Unfortunately  for  the  reputation  of 
their  cause  with  men  and  women  who  really  know  the 
Saviour,  they  seem  to  have  allied  themselves  with  those 
humanitarian  forces  which  do  not  pretend  to  preach  the  re- 
conciliation of  the  sinful  soul  of  man  to  God  through  the 
blood  of  Christ,  and  still  others  who  openly  disavow  the 
supernatural  in  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Christian 
bodies,  which  they  have  sought  to  discredit  and  belittle, 
are  afresh  humbling  themselves  before  God  and  his  Christ. 
This  fact  is  an  additional  suggestion  that  there  is  in  de- 
nominational liberty  that  which  pleases  Christ,  while  the 


156        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

appeal  of  Unionism  is  displeasing  to  him,  though  popular 
with  unregenerate  men. 

A  "New  Religion."  Observing  the  rationalistic  tendencies 
in  certain  educational  circles  and  the  increasing  vogue  of 
the  evolution  theory  among  some  who  had  been  drinking 
at  the  poisoned  fountains  of  German  learning,  a  certain 
old  man  in  America  hastened  to  announce  the  advent  of  a 
New  Religion.  As  the  utterance  of  a  private  individual, 
the  conceit  and  bombast  of  this  deliverance  would  have 
brought  upon  its  sponsor  only  contempt  and  derision.  But 
the  announcer  of  the  New  Religion  is  the  ex-president  of  a 
great  American  university.  True,  the  Scriptures  declare 
(Jer.  29: 14)  that  the  wisdom  of  the  wise  men  of  this  world 
shall  perish,  and  (I  Cor.  1  :21):  "In  the  wisdom  of  God 
the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  for  it  pleased  God  by 
the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe." 
But  why  should  not  the  learned  in  books  and  strange  sci- 
ences be  better  able  to  measure  and  know  Almighty  God, 
than  the  mere  unlearned  man?  is  the  foolish  thought  of 
the  world.  So  we  have  the  spectacle  of  this  aged  familiar 
of  strange  lore  announcing  a  New  Religion  which  shall 
conform  to  the  yardstick  of  man's  scientific  learning.  In- 
stead of  this  exciting  pity  and  laughter,  it  is  taken  seriously 
by  many,  affecting  and  weakening  even  the  utterances  of 
some  pulpits.  The  New  Religion  is  a  religion  without  au- 
thority. It  sets  aside  the  Bible  as  the  inspired  Word  of 
God.  It  refuses  to  believe  in  the  deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus. 
It  denies  his  virgin  birth.  It  is  monotheistic.  Unitarian.  It 
denies  the  priesthood  and  heavenly  intercession  of  Christ. 
It  rejects  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  and  ties  its  faith  to 
the  theory  of  evolution  and  rationalism.  More  than  all 
else,  it  rejects  the  cross  of  Christ,  through  the  cruelty  and 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  157 

mystery  of  which  our  sins  are  atoned.  It  makes  much  of 
love,  but  is  in  hopeless  darkness  as  to  the  meaning  of  that 
passage  ( 1  John  3:16):  "Hereby  perceive  we  the  love 
of  God,  because  he  laid  down  his  life  for  us."  Not  to  ex- 
pound the  New  Religion  further,  it  is  Antichrist,  dressed 
up  in  the  decorous  and  self-complacent  robes  of  skeptical 
human  learning.  Like  the  Pharisees  of  old,  it  is  not  averse 
to  its  saving  virtues  being  known  by  the  commonality, 
but  its  favored  habitat  is  the  scholastic  shades,  and,  thank 
God,  its  dignity  and  lack  of  passion  that  humanity  may 
profit  by  its  wisdom,  makes  it  count  little  as  an  active  prop- 
aganda, except  when  sensational  Sunday  supplements  and 
a  few  pulpits,  which  do  not  know  the  Christ,  pass  its  mes- 
sage of  spiritual  barrenness  on  to  the  people. 

Unbelief  in  institutions  of  learning.  Too  somnolent  and 
dignified  to  carry  its  empty  gospel  to  the  masses,  the  New 
Religion  is  doing  business  more  than  our  people  realize  in 
not  a  few  educational  institutions.  With  worldly  wisdom  the 
New  Religion  has  understanding.  Are  not  the  graduates  of 
the  colleges  to  have  unusual  influence  in  shaping  the 
opinions  of  men?  If  we  can  take  Christ  from  them,  will 
they  not  take  him  from  the  hungry-hearted,  unlearned 
masses  in  the  market  place?  The  South  has  been  freer 
from  atheism  than  other  sections,  but  latterly  the  poison 
of  rationaHsm  and  evolution  has  percolated  into  not  a  few 
Southern  colleges  and  universities.  Not  even  the  Christian 
schools,  which  have  back  of  them  religious  bodies  that 
would  certainly,  if  they  knew,  scourge  every  professor  from 
his  place  who  would  teach  contrary  to  the  Christ  of  God, 
have  had  altogether  an  easy  time  in  safeguarding  the  class 
rooms  from  the  miasmatic  utterances  of  teachers  who  have 
been   contaminated   by   the   rationalistic   and   evolutionary 


158  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

imaginings  of  the  New  Religion.  The  thought  of  our  Chris- 
tian bodies  in  the  South  is  so  patently  opposed  to  ration- 
alistic teachings  from  the  professor's  chair,  that  an  infected 
teacher  cannot  remain,  once  he  is  discovered  by  the  people 
who  maintain  our  Christian  schools.  It  is  unethical  for  a 
man  to  teach  that  which  would  undermine  the  very  foun- 
dations on  which  the  school  is  built,  though  many  a  ra- 
tionalistic teacher  is  so  sure  that  he  has  ultimate  wisdom 
in  trust  for  the  benighted  that  he  forgets  all  ordinary 
ethical  standards,  and  becomes  a  traitor  in  any  Christian 
school.  It  avails  nothing  for  one  of  these  to  declaim  about 
the  right  of  a  teacher  to  teach  the  truth,  wherever  it  leads. 
Our  denominational  schools  give  all  possible  liberty  to  teach 
the  truth,  but  they  are  in  bondage  to  Christ.  For  a  pro- 
fessor, on  the  strength  of  the  evolution  guess,  which  has 
been  discredited  by  the  scientists  themselves  from  nearly 
every  angle  of  its  claims,  to  demand  freedom  to  put  his 
puny  wisdom  against  the  Christ  of  the  word  of  God,  is 
absurd,  ridiculous  and  contemptible.  Though  some  of  our 
Christian  schools  have  had  to  do  with  rationalistic  teachers, 
it  is  my  grateful  belief  that,  as  a  rule,  they  are  free  from 
this  subtle  curse.  But  our  people  should  courteously  but 
frankly  and  firmly  let  faculties  and  trustees  of  these  schools 
understand  that  th«y  must  positively  hold  to  the  supernat- 
ural in  religion,  and  avoid  teachers  who  are  infected  with 
rationalism.  It  is  with  no  purpose  to  attack  State-con- 
trolled and  other  non-Christian  institutions  that  I  call  at- 
tention that  in  these  schools,  along  with  some  men  who  are 
devout  Christians,  there  are  others  who  make  a  god  of  the 
sciences  they  teach  to  the  discrediting  of  the  God  of  revela- 
tion. It  is  tragic  to  think  of  the  unformed  minds  of  young 
men  and  women  coming  plastic  into  the  fashioning  hands 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  159 

of  one  of  these  professorial  skeptics.  Moreover,  if  the  tax- 
payers, who  in  the  Southern  States  are  in  the  large  ma- 
jority of  cases  Christian  men,  really  sensed  the  significance 
of  the  poison  which  some  of  these  men  are  dispensing  to 
the  future  leaders  of  the  land  under  the  label  of  scientific 
learning,  they  would  seek  and  find  a  way  to  put  a  quietus 
upon  such  teaching,  or  else  would  warn  our  people  against 
these  institutions  as  against  a  plague. 

The  assastiiiation  of  a  soul.  A  young  lady  came  to  an 
evangelist  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  and  said:  "Dr. 
Blank,  I  am  drawn  by  your  appeal,  but  I  am  all  torn  to 
pieces  in  my  belief.  Once  I  believed  the  Bible,  which  my 
mother  taught  me.  I  do  not  now,  and  I  am  greatly  dis- 
tressed. Throughout  my  course  of  study  at  a  State  college 
I  have  been  drilled  in  evolution.  I  have  accepted  its  teach- 
ings and  I  believe  it,  because  my  professors  have  over 
and  over  assured  me  it  is  true.  I  cannot  reconcile  it  with 
my  old  faith  in  God.  It  don't  help  me  and  its  pompous 
negations  leave  me  tired  and  hungry,  but  it  is  all  they  have 
left  me."  That  professor  had  done  his  best  to  assassinate 
a  soul  and  had  apparently  succeeded.  It  is  appalling  to 
think  of  the  devil-work  which  such  complacent  vendors  of 
learning  are  permitted  to  do.  The  South  has  had  a  signal 
victory  over  the  curse  of  the  saloon.  Bad  as  is  the  whiskey 
demon,  ten  institutions  training  the  brightest  minds  of  the 
land  to  feed  on  the  husks  of  infidelity  and  rationalism  will 
do  more  to  damn  the  South  than  any  thousand  bar-rooms 
that  ever  sapped  the  manhood  of  the  country  and  turned 
men  into  besotted  beasts.  Not  in  gaudy  red,  but  in  the 
robes  of  an  angel  of  light  Satan  does  his  most  astute  work 
to  destroy  souls. 


160        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Salyatioii  by  environment.  Salvation  by  environment  is 
social  service  gone  to  seed.  I  have  before  me  a  book  on 
Home  Missions.  The  thesis  of  that  book  through  about  200 
pages  is  that  the  new  Home  Missions  is  to  sanctify  the 
dipping  vat  and  chase  to  their  ultimate  lair  the  various 
noxious  germs  that  jeopardize  the  health  of  the  human 
body.  Not  once  does  the  author  say  that  the  new  Home 
Missions  must  bring  lost  and  sinful  men  to  accept  the  sac- 
rificial offering  of  Christ  for  redemption.  Such  a  writer, 
who  Athenian-like,  spends  his  time  "in  nothing  else,  but  to 
tell  or  hear  some  new  thing,"  might  possibly  say,  if  cor- 
nered, that  salvation  by  grace  was  to  be  taken  for  granted. 
But  this  is  the  one  thing  of  all  things  under  heaven  which 
can  never  be  taken  for  granted.  God  has  ordained  to  save 
men  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  the  crucified  Christ, 
and  they  are  born  again.  In  grace,  as  in  nature,  not  to 
provide  the  conditions  under  which  life  reproduces  itself  is 
to  have  no  life.  Salvation  by  environment  is  concerned 
with  what  it  calls  the  "practical"  in  religion.  It  has  small 
patience  with  the  supernatural.  It  cares  little  about  the 
worship  of  Almighty  God,  but  coolly  asks:  "What  is  God 
good  for?"  Like  the  crowd  who,  in  the  hope  he  would 
provide  unfailing  provender  for  their  stomachs,  wanted  to 
make  Jesus  a  king,  the  advocates  of  salvation  by  environ- 
ment want  only  a  utilitarian  God,  Well,  the  true  God 
refuses  to  be  used.  Jesus  refused  every  effort  of  men  to 
use  him  for  their  ends.  Men  may  harness  the  forces  of 
nature,  but  they  cannot  harness  God,  even  for  the  most 
seemly  humanitarianism.  They  must  worship  him  with  the 
whole  heart  or  be  forever  separated  from  him. 

Social  salvation.  Elsewhere  reference  has  been  made  to 
the  phenomenal  growth  of  the  social  gospel  in  this  country. 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  161 

Within  a  few  years,  scores  and  scores  of  writers  have  set 
forth  their  views  in  an  unceasing  stream  of  books,  each 
contributing  what  he  considered  his  own  special  thought 
to  the  progress  of  greater  social  service.  Some  ransacked 
the  Old  Testament  and  ran  forthwith  to  the  band-stand  in 
the  market  place  and  shouted  that  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Jews  had  social  salvation  as  their  prime  object  and  a 
spiritual  religion  only  as  a  secondary  object.  With  a  micro- 
scope they  collected  the  comparatively  few  words  and  acts 
of  our  Lord  that  seemed  to  look  primarily  to  environmental 
improvement  and  raced  posthaste  to  publisher  and  pulpit  to 
tell  about  it.  Though  these  advocates,  as  many  others, 
found  the  churches  and  preachers  the  easiest  mark  at  which 
to  cast  the  stone  of  criticism,  and  promptly  set  about  doing 
it,  they  hardly  had  more  haste  in  heralding  the  millennium 
which  awaited  the  social  service  quickening  than  many  of 
the  preachers  themselves.  Some  are  crying:  "Christianize 
the  social  order ! "  meaning  that  men  will  evolve  into  godli- 
ness, if  we  will  clean  up  the  environment  for  them.  Others 
cry :  "Socialize  Christianity ! "  m:eaning  that  the  pulpit  and 
church  must  become  expert  "dividers"  of  property  among 
men,  which  Jesus  refused  to  do.  But  our  Lx)rd  said: 
"Except  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom 
of  God."  Herbert  Spencer  said:  "There  is  no  political 
alchemy  by  which  you  can  get  golden  conduct  out  of 
leaden  instincts."  A  nice  fresh  coat  of  paint  on  the  pen 
does  not  change  the  nature  of  the  pig  it  contains.  Shall 
a  preacher  be  interested  in  the  community  welfare?  Cer- 
tainly, but  the  greatest  service  he  can  possibly  render  is  to 
bring  wrong-hearted  men  to  Jesus.  Shall  he  not  stand  for 
prohibition  and  other  moral  reforms  ?  Yes,  always  when  they 
are  distinctly  moral  reforms.     But  in  the  pulpit  his  appeal 


162        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

must  be  to  conscience  and  principle.  It  is  not  his  function 
to  lead  in  executing  a  community  clean-up,  but  to  preach 
a  gospel  which  will  make  men  who  will  do  it. 

Discredit  those  who  disagree.  Unionists,  evolutionists, 
and  rationalists  in  religion  have  much  in  common  in  their 
attitude  toward  those  who  hold  strictly  to  the  doctrines  of 
the  Bible.  They  ail  assume  that  they  live  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  superior  breadth  of  view  and  knowledge,  from 
which  they  can  look  down  upon  and  compassionate  per- 
sons who  believe  something  definitely  concerning  God's 
revelation  to  man.  This  arrogant  assumption  comports 
poorly  with  the  charitable  liberality  and  breadth  which 
these  gentlemen  claim.  They  smile  with  favor  upon  the 
weakest  neophyte  who  adopts  their  doctrines  of  doubt,  but 
brand  as  narrow  and  non-thinking  all  who  do  not  accept 
their  dogmas.  This  pose  serves  well  before  the  world,  but 
it  absolutely  negatives  their  claim  that  they  live  in  on  high 
and  dispassionate  plane  of  love  and  untroubled  reason. 
Since  when  have  supercilious  sneers  and  lofty  assumptions 
become  the  earmarks  of  intellectual  breadth  and  spiritual 
elevation?  This  intolerance  on  the  part  of  the  self-adver- 
tised exponents  of  tolerance  should  not  intimidate  any 
child  of  God.  The  world  will  give  vogue  to  this  veiled 
spirit  of  persecution,  for  the  world  knows  its  own.  Chris- 
tians should  meet  this,  not  by  an  effort  to  please  the  world 
through  forsaking  the  truth,  but  by  diligently  studying  to 
know  the  truth  of  God,  to  teach  it  to  others,  and  to  exem- 
plify it  in  their  own  lives.  Before  me  is  Rauschenbusch's 
"Theology  of  the  Social  Gospel."  This  leading  exponent  of 
salvation  by  environment  tells  of  a  farmer  who  swore  an 
oath  because  the  city  authorities  got  after  him  for  selling 
impure  milk.     The  farmer's    church    excluded    him,    says 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  DOCTRINE  163 

Rauschenbusch,  not  for  the  dirty  milk,  which  might  kill 
babies,  but  for  swearing.  Upon  which  basis  the  writer  con- 
demns the  man  and  the  church.  The  reader  can  imagine 
how  the  average  audience  would  be  swept  by  this.  The  un- 
thoughtful  would  rail  on  the  church  for  a  "dead  ortho- 
doxy" and  for  indifference  about  clean  milk  and  all  other 
devices  for  cleaning  the  material  side  of  life.  But  this 
would  be  absolutely  unfair.  The  public  has  only  recently 
been  taught  about  deadly  germs.  Though  this  is  not  their 
main  business,  the  churches  are  learning  about  them  more 
rapidly  than  most  other  agencies  of  service.  But  this 
church  had  learned  that  God  requires  a  clean  heart,  and 
that  profanity  is  a  sign  of  an  unclean  one.  It  did  well  to 
discipline  the  offender.  But  social  gospel  radicals  and 
other  enemies  of  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  in  religion 
are  ready  on  the  minute  to  take  any  snap  judgment  to 
condemn  the  Christian  bodies.  Let  no  true  child  of  God 
be  disturbed.  Those  who  would  discredit  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ,  as  it  has  been  taught  and  exemplified  by  the 
churches  of  Christ,  are  doing  the  work  of  Antichrist.  The 
churches  are  imperfect,  but  men  who  bring  a  general  and 
railing  accusation  against  the  bodies  which  have  through 
the  generations  kept  the  light  of  Christian  faith  burning  in 
human  lives,  by  that  very  act  show  that  their  teachings  are 
unworthy  of  respect. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  VII. 

1.  Show  some  of  the  inconsistences  of  the  new  gospel  of  "toler- 
ance." 

2.  By  Paul's  teaching,  and  by  their  tendency  to  minimize  or 
deny  the  deity  of  our  Lord,  show  that  teachings  of  liber- 
alism are  Antichrist 

3.  What  leaven  has  science  furnished? 

4.  Discuss  the  kind  of  faith  which  has  sweetened  and  purified 
American  life. 

5.  Discuss  Unionism,  its  proposition  of  "salvation  by  syndi- 
cate," and  its  prophecy  concerning  religion  after  the  World 
War. 

6.  Discuss  the  "New  Religion,"  and  rationalistic  and  evolution 
teachings  in  colleges  and  universities. 

7.  Discuss  salvation  by  environment  and  the  effort  of  its  advo- 
cates to  discredit  churches  that  preach  salvation  by  grace 
through  faith. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES. 

Romanism.  Romanism  is  a  religious  autocracy.  It  be- 
lieves that  it  represents  God  on  earth  and  that  no  other 
religious  body  does.  Its  astute  organization  is  built  up 
around  an  infallible  pope.  The  hierarchy  has  only  anathe- 
mas for  all  other  religious  bodies.  Everyone  of  them  it 
classes  as  heretical,  whose  followers  are  to  be  scourged  from 
earth  just  in  proportion  as  it  gets  opportunity  and  power 
to  do  so.  As  a  Christian  system  it  encourages  the  worship 
of  saints,  and  especially  of  the  mother  of  Jesus.  It  de- 
nounces the  right  of  private  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  in  countries  where  it  has  the  right  of  way  keeps  the 
Bible  from  the  people.  Its  gospel  does  not  rest  on  salva- 
tion by  faith;  it  makes  a  large  place  for  the  merit  of  good 
works.  Through  all  this  clutter,  a  soul  under  Romanist 
leadership  has  a  difficult  lime  in  trjang  to  find  Jesus  the 
Saviour.  In  truth,  the  multitude  of  them  are  cut  off  from 
the  living  Christ.  But  it  is  as  a  political  system  that  Ro- 
manism is  especially  out  of  place  in  America.  It  is  a  religio- 
political  autocracy,  seeking  to  become  dominant  in  a  country 
whose  most  sacred  traditions  and  ideals  are  those  of  democ- 
racy. By  secret  diplomacy,  by  intimidation  and  threats, 
Romanists  take  unfair  advantage  when  they  can,  in  the 
way  of  governmental  patronage.  Romanism  seeks  to  cor- 
rupt and  does  corrupt  the  press,  to  such  an  extent  that, 
even  in  the  South,  where  the  Catholics  are  a  mere  urban 
handful,  many  of  the  daily  papers  advertise  the  hierarchy 
and  keep  their  mouths  closed  about  Romanist  political  per- 


166        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

versions,  while  the  evangelical  bodies,  which  number  twenty 
to  one,  as  compared  with  the  Romanists,  get  scant  con- 
sideration. This  speaks  highly  for  Catholic  astuteness  and 
discreditably  for  Catholic  principles.  Through  the  same 
unscrupulous  shrewdness  the  agents  of  the  hierarchy  are 
prostituting  the  moving  picture  shows  to  their  purposes. 
Protestant  patrons  of  these  shows,  who  throughout  America 
outnumber  Catholics  five  to  one,  must  have  their  sensibili" 
ties  and  sense  of  justice  outraged  by  the  pictured  piety  of 
priests  and  nuns  wherever  these  vehicles  for  Vatican  dogma 
can  be  lugged  in.  Openly  and  everywhere  Rome  fights  the 
American  public  school,  without  which  this  nation  could  not 
endure  as  a  democracy.  Rome  knows  her  autocratic  pre- 
tensions could  not  live  long  in  the  American  atmosphere, 
if  Catholic  youth  were  educated  alongside  of  the  children 
of  their  fellow  citizens.  She  wants  to  control  education  in 
order  to  saturate  youthful  minds  with  her  discredited  auto- 
cratic ideas,  which  belong  to  the  Dark  Ages.  Because  of 
its  great  strength,  its  unscrupulous  methods,  its  astute  cun- 
ning, and  its  announced  ungodly  ambition  to  make  this 
democratic  nation  dominantly  Catholic  and  autocratic  in 
religion,  Roman  Catholicism  is  probably  the  most  dan- 
gerous foe  of  American  liberty  to-day.  We  ought  to  try 
lovingly  to  teach  Roman  Catholics  the  truth.  Many  of 
them  are  ready  to  accept  it,  and  Christian  patriotism  of 
America  should  set  itself  sternly  against  the  insolent  po- 
litical assumptions  of  an  organization  which,  notwithstand- 
ing its  amazing  record  of  blood  and  persecution  in  history, 
arrogantly  claims  to  be  the  one  and  only  true  spiritual 
guide  of  mankind. 

Mormonism.     If  there  is  another  religio-political  organ- 
ization in  the  world  from  which  Romanism  could  learn 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND   OTHER  FOES  167 

something  new  in  the  autocratic  control  of  a  religious  group, 
that  organization  is  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
Day  Saints.  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  is  headquarters  for  the 
Mormons.  Like  an  octopus  this  religio-commercial  autoc- 
racy spreads  its  tentacles  over  the  Rocky  Mountain  States. 
It  either  has  the  political  control  or  is  a  sinister  balance  of 
power  in  Utah,  Montana,  Wyoming  and  Idaho,  while  it  is 
also  coming  into  influence  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 
In  Chattanooga  it  has  Southern  headquarters,  from  which 
its  elders  are  working  throughout  the  South  all  the  while. 
They  have  churches  in  every  Southern  State.  Mormonism 
is  a  species  of  paganism.  The  Bible  and  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon it  claims  are  the  Word  of  God.  But  the  Bible  revela- 
tion was  made  to  meet  needs  in  olden  times  and  suffers 
from  the  mistakes  of  translation,  while  the  Book  of  Mormon 
is  modern  and,  though  it  was  juggled  to  an  amanuensis 
from  behind  a  curtain  by  the  founder,  Joseph  Smith,  who 
said  he  got  the  stuff  from  certain  golden  plates,  yet  the 
Mormon  book  is  in  our  own  tongue.  It  has  not  "suffered" 
from  translation.  Moreover,  the  Mormon  leaders  claim  to 
get  "up-to-the-minute"  revelations  of  inspired  truth,  when- 
ever they  are  needed.  Practically,  the  President  of  the 
Mormons  outranks  the  Bible  in  authority.  The  Mormon 
hierarchy  teaches  and  secretly  practices  polygamy,  though 
to  get  Statehood  it  solemnly  promised  the  United  States 
government  to  give  up  polygamy.  It  sets  forth  in  its  sacred 
writings  its  purpose  to  overthrow  "republics  and  kingdoms" 
by  fire  and  sword.  It  has  many  gods.  Adam  is  the  god 
of  this  world.  It  baptizes  for  the  dead  and  is  devoid  of 
spirituality.  It  seeks  financial  power  and  is  winning  it 
rapidly,  with  the  tithes  of  the  faithful  as  its  commercial 
nest-egg.     A  bronze  statue  of  Brigham  Young,  in  front  of 


168  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  Eagle  Gate  in  Salt  Lake  City,  has  its  back  toward  the 
Mormon  Temple  and  an  open  palm  extended  toward  the 
bank  on  an  adjacent  corner.  It  is  a  fine  unconscious  im- 
personation of  the  attitude  and  spirit  of  the  Mormon  hier- 
archy toward  financial  and  commercial  power. 

Rutsellism.  This  false  faith  is  known  by  the  name 
of  its  founder,  "Pastor  Russell,"  a  man  whose  wife  got  a 
divorce  from  him  on  statutory  grounds,  and  who  was  en- 
gaged in  sundry  questionable  financial  operations  in  New 
York  and  elsewhere.  Among  its  clutter  of  false  teachings, 
Russellism  sets  forth  that  when  Jesus  died  on  the  cross  he 
ceased  to  exist.  His  body  disappeared,  probably  in  gases, 
says  Russellism.  After  three  days,  God  caused  him  to  be 
created  again  as  an  invisible  spirit.  Before  his  death,  Rus- 
sellism says,  Jesus  had  only  ordinary  human  nature.  He 
became  partaker  of  the  divine  nature  for  the  first  time 
after  his  spirit  rose  from  the  dead.  When  Christ  appeared 
to  his  disciples,  it  was  in  a  body  created  especially  for  that 
occasion.  Salvation  is  purely  a  matter  of  personal  merit. 
Everybody  will  have  a  "second  chance"  after  death.  If 
any  are  so  confirmed  in  wickedness  that  they  do  not  want 
to  be  saved  when  the  "second  chance"  is  offered,  they  will 
have  the  privilege  of  being  forever  blotted  out.  This  sys- 
tem is  a  mass  of  Antichrist  teaching,  from  beginning  to 
end.  The  above  is  enough  to  show  how  utterly  destructive 
it  is  to  spiritual  life.  It  takes  away  the  Christ  of  the  Bible, 
discounts  salvation  by  faith,  and  encourages  men  and 
women  to  live  in  sin  in  the  belief  that  they  will  never 
suffer  for  it.  It  is  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  to  every  robber 
and  adulterer  and  murderer.  This  system  is  being  spread 
among  the  people  in  the  South  by  the  broadcast  distribu- 
tion  of   tracts,   by   lectures  in   cities,   and  by   newspaper 


FALSE   FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  169 

advertisements.  A  reputable  newspaper  ought  to  be  asham- 
ed to  take  such  an  advertisement.  It  has  not  only  en- 
snared many  in  remote  communities,  but  has  won  adherents 
in  the  cities.  There  is  not  a  more  destructive  heresy  in  the 
world  than  this  system.  That  it  has  made  so  much  head- 
way reflects  on  the  adequacy  of  teaching  in  our  pulpits 
and  on  the  efficiency  of  our  missionary  impact  on  the  life 
of  the  South. 

Holy  Rollerism.  Like  practically  all  the  false  faiths. 
Holy  Rollerism,  or  Sanctificationism,  seeks  converts  not  so 
much  among  the  lost  as  among  the  members  of  the  churches. 
In  fact,  the  Holy  Rollers  are  sometimes  called  "Come- 
Outers."  In  one  vital  respect,  this  system  is  less  ruinous 
than  most  of  the  false  religions  which  afflict  the  people. 
It  does  not  reject  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  It  is  a  faith  of 
emotional  excesses  and  depends  for  its  vogue  upon  the 
ignorance  and  emotional  excitability  of  those  to  whom  it 
appeals.  Baptists  and  Methodists  have  much  to  their 
credit  in  the  South.  They  have  done  most  of  all  that 
has  been  done  to  evangelize  and  Christianize  the  masses 
of  our  people.  But  the  easy  successes  of  the  frenzied  ef- 
forts of  Holy  Rollerism  are  an  incontrovertible  evidence 
that  these  two  bodies  have  not  done  their  duty  in  instruct- 
ing the  people  in  religion.  If  the  reader  wants  an  experi- 
ence which  will  make  him  feel  like  weeping  over  the  failure 
of  our  Baptist  system  to  nurture  the  masses  of  the  people 
in  the  Christian  life,  let  him  go  into  one  of  the  Holy  Roller 
meetings  and  observe  how,  under  the  spell  of  the  inco- 
herent exhortations  of  the  preacher,  the  poor  people  be- 
come mesmerized  and  succumb  before  the  sway  of  his 
delirium.  These  men  profess  to  have  more  religion  than 
any  of  the  evangelical  churches,  which  they  roundly  de- 


170        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

nounce  for  worldliness.  They  offer  their  almost  maniacal 
earnestness  of  manner  as  evidence  of  their  superior  piety. 
Following  their  preaching,  many  poor  men  and  women 
swoon  or  cry  out  in  pitiful  groanings,  or  "speak  with 
tongues."  There  is  competent  evidence  in  my  possession  that 
gross  immorality  is  often  associated  with  the  Holy  Roller 
worship,  which  is  not  surprising  to  a  student  of  the  psy- 
chology of  emotion.  The  outstanding  lesson  of  these  ex- 
cesses is  one  of  reproof  to  the  evangelical  religious  bodies 
which  have  had  the  following  of  the  people.  It  is 
a  stinging  rebuke  to  us  to  consider  that  we  have  so 
neglected  to  teach  the  people  in  the  South,  where  God  has 
placed  them  in  such  easy  access  to  the  Baptists  and  Meth- 
odists, that  they  can  be  misled  by  the  first  ignorant  religious 
charlatan  who  comes  along  with  a  fervent  appeal.  If  we 
had  half  done  the  service  of  teaching  which  God  committed 
to  our  hands,  there  would  be  no  open  door  for  such  false 
teachers.  Our  failure  to  instruct  the  people  is  a  tacit  in- 
vitation to  every  false  religion  in  the  land  to  have  its  try 
at  winning  them. 

Christian  Science.  Christian  Science,  so-called,  is  the 
religio-medical  masquerade  of  a  woman,  who  was  mar- 
ried three  times,  and  perhaps  four.  The  first  husband 
died  soon.  The  second,  after  a  number  of  years  with 
this  female  revealer  as  his  consort,  sought  and  se- 
cured a  divorce.  The  third  died,  according  to  the 
wife,  only  after  she  had  twice  brought  him  back 
from  death.  Equal  though  she  claimed  to  be  to  Jesus 
Christ,  she  seems  to  have  failed  on  the  third  resurrection 
of  the  third  husband.  Much  married  as  Mrs.  Mary  Baker 
Glover-Patterson-Eddy  was,  she  disapproved  marriage  in 
her   system   of   mental   healing,   which   she   gradually   de- 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  171 

veloped  the  monumental  hardihood  to  set  forth  as  a  religion, 
revealed  from  heaven.  She  says:  "Is  marriage  nearer 
right  than  celibacy?  Human  knowledge  inculcates  that  it 
is,  while  science  indicates  that  it  is  not."  This  woman's 
pretended  revelations  are  not  only  un-Christian,  they  are 
anti-Christian.  A  few  quotations  will  do,  though  many 
could  be  given:  Eddy — "There  is  no  matter;"  Bible — "In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth." 
Eddy — "Man  is  incapable  of  sin;"  Bible — "All  have  sin- 
ned." Eddy — "Man  is  never  sick;"  Bible — "They  brought 
him  all  sick  people."  Eddy — "There  is  no  death;"  Bible — 
"It  is  appointed  unto  man  once  to  die."  Eddy — "Jesus  is 
not  the  Christ ; "  Bible — "Who  is  the  liar  but  he  that  denieth 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ?"  But  why  should  people  who  are 
capable  of  reasoning  at  all  be  asked  to  follow  the  blas- 
phemous and  pretentious  allegations  of  this  woman,  whose 
system  has  rightly  been  called  an  advocacy  of  mental  as- 
sassination. She  died  herself,  and  still  her  dupes  continue 
to  meet  on  Sundays  in  the  so-called  churches  of  the  cult 
and  read  alternately  from  the  Bible  and  her  "Science  and 
Health"  book,  which  these  pitiable  people  reverence  as  the 
Bible.  They  do  not  preach;  Mrs.  Eddy  saw  to  it  that  her 
jargon-book  should  be  the  great  thing  in  the  pulpit.  They 
read  that.  They  read  the  Bible  alternately  with  her  book, 
pretending  that  her  talismanic  formulas  of  pretentious  words 
and  foolish  sentences  throw  light  on  the  meaning  of  the 
Bible.  Surely  there  is  an  amazing  effort  to  get  away  from 
Christ  when  people,  usually  women,  who  know  enough  to 
go  about  without  a  guardian,  are  so  devoid  of  sense  on 
religious  matters  and  so  ignorant  of  the  Bible  teachings, 
that  they  will  swallow  whole  the  presumptious  nonsense 
of  a  woman  whose  own  personal  record  was  such  that  it 


172        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

cannot  bear  close  scrutiny  with  any  hope  of  remaining  above 
suspicion.  There  is  some  evidence  that  we  have  passed  the 
crest  of  the  wave  of  psychological  mania  which  has  swung 
so  many  people,  usually  otherwise  harmless,  into  this  haven 
of  cheap  superstition  and  ignorance.  If  we  could  sense  the 
suffering  of  the  little  children  alone,  whose  superstition- 
crazed  mothers  have  let  them  suffer  and  even  die  without 
medical  attention,  while  they  recited  the  parrot-incantations 
of  that  woman  about  there  being  no  pain  and  no  sickness, 
it  would  fill  us  with  unspeakable  horror  and  loathing. 

Weak-kneed  preachers.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  those 
who  would  bring  a  railing  accusation  against  preachers. 
As  a  class,  they  are  the  best  men  in  any  section  any  day. 
They  suffer  from  many  accusations  which  are  false.  Chiv- 
alry protects  women,  but  often  goes  lame  over  safeguarding 
the  men  of  God,  who  are  in  some  respects  more  defenseless 
against  scurrilous  tongues  than  women.  But,  in  connection 
with  the  false  faiths  named  here  and  others  not  named,  it 
needs  to  be  said  that  some  preachers  either  lack  in  courage 
or  suffer  greatly  for  lack  of  information.  Consider  Chris- 
tian Science.  Most  of  us  remember  how,  a  few  years  ago, 
some  of  our  preachers  were  telling  us  there  was  surely 
something  good  in  a  thing  which  could  get  hold  of  the 
people  like  Mrs.  Eddy's  hodge-podge  did.  It  sounded  so 
amiable  and  charitable  thus  to  speak.  In  fact,  to  the 
superficial  it  suggested  that  the  speaker  was  deeper  of 
thought  and  more  loving  of  heart  and  appreciative  of  spirit 
than  most!  And  all  the  time,  silly  women  and  foolish  men 
were  being  drawn  into  confidence  in  the  lying  formulas  of  a 
system  that  was  blasphemous,  which  a  woman  who  was 
once  a  spiritualistic  medium  had  borrowed  from  a  physician 
without   permission   and   gravely   set   forth   as   a   religion! 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  173 

From  Catholicism  to  Eddyism,  from  Mormonism  to  Holy 
Rollerism,  and  from  New  Thought  to  Spiritualism,  the 
preachers  have  an  obligation  before  God  so  to  teach  the 
people  the  truth  of  Christ  that  they  shall  not  be  deceived 
by  infected  winds  of  doctrine.  It  matters  not  whether 
secular  newspapers  and  politicians  applaud  or  do  not  ap' 
plaud.  Of  course  they  will  not  applaud.  Neither  will  time- 
serving church  members.  If  we  have  become  so  afraid  as 
this  of  the  criticism  and  anxious  for  the  approval  of  the 
people  of  this  world,  whose  social  ease,  political  success,  or 
business  advantages  may  be  made  uneasy  by  our  faithful- 
ness in  speaking  the  truth,  the  time  is  fully  ripe  for  us  to 
confess  our  lack  of  manhood  and  loyalty  and  get  out.  We 
had  better  give  place  to  men  who  shall  think  more  of  faith- 
fulness to  the  crucified  Christ  than  they  do  of  what  a  lot 
of  world-serving  people  and  selfish  interests  shall  have  to 
say  about  it.  We  do  well  not  to  criticise  from  our  pulpits 
other  Christian  bodies  than  our  own,  as  our  fathers  some- 
times did.  But  when  we  give  up  our  testimony  to  truth, 
lest  some  fastidious  soul  should  squirm,  we  do  not  well. 
Most  of  the  false  faiths  I  have  mentioned,  are  in  no 
sense  Christian  bodies  at  all.  Though  every  one  of  them 
juggles  with  pretended  respect  with  the  name  of  Christ,  in 
order  better  to  deceive  the  unwary,  each  of  them  shows  the 
cloven  foot  of  Antichrist  when  it  denies  that  Jesus  is  the 
Lord.  And  shall  men  who  stand  up  to  speak  for  God,  use 
mincing  words  to  please  finicky  people,  when  they  have  to 
deal  with  such  blasphemous  errors  as  these?  Every  religion 
which  denies  the  deity  of  the  Christ  belongs  in  the  pit  and 
shall  go  there.  Shall  we,  whose  business  it  is  to  win  men's 
souls  from  the  pit  and  to  Christ,  sedulously  choose  soft 
words  when  we  deal  with  such  errors,  hunting  for  kind 
phrases  to  utter  about  the  devil  himself? 


174  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Indifferent  church  members.  A  fair-speaking  and  com- 
placent optimism,  in  the  face  of  the  Antichrist  systems 
which  are  seeking  to  destroy  souls,  would  be  traitorous. 
It  would  be  abominable  in  the  sight  of  God.  It  would  be 
a  prophecy  that  the  departing  from  the  faith  in  the  latter 
days,  of  which  Paul  spoke,  is  now  in  progress.  But 
there  is  another  enemy  to  the  effectiveness  of  the  call  of 
missions  in  the  South  which  perhaps  contains  a  more  subtle 
danger  than  do  false  faiths.  It  is  the  indifference  which  so 
many  church  members  exhibit  toward  the  work  of  Chris- 
tianizing our  own  country.  Elsewhere  I  have  quoted  lead- 
ing missionary  statesmen  in  a  united  testimony  that  the 
work  of  Christianizing  America  is  the  most  crucial  task  in 
the  work  of  evangelizing  the  world.  But  there  are  tens  of 
thousands  in  our  churches  who  see  nothing  in  missions  be- 
yond a  heraldic  proclamation  to  those  who  have  never 
heard.  Tens  of  thousands  believe  that,  if  we  save  the  soul, 
we  are  under  no  obligation  to  seek  to  save  the  life.  Prac- 
tically, tens  of  thousands  believe  that  missions  apply  only 
in  the  abstract  and  to  the  far-away.  The  unpicturesque 
problems  of  the  near  do  not  appeal  to  them.  We  love  a 
naughty  sinner  and  patiently  pray  for  him  till  he  is  saved. 
But  we  withdraw  our  ministries  of  missionary  love  from 
the  convert,  once  he  is  born  a  babe  into  the  Kingdom. 
From  a  missionary  standpoint,  we  exhibit  little  or  no  patient 
love  or  helpfulness  for  him  any  more.  We  love  humanity 
in  the  mass  far  away,  but  so  often  we  do  not  love  humanity 
in  the  concrete  near  at  hand.  The  folk  near  at  hand  are 
always  too  difficult  to  be  cured  of  their  ills  by  delegated 
aid  or  by  a  hurried  heraldic  proclamation.  The  far-away 
ones  cannot  be  so  cured  either,  but  we  put  all  the  worry 
about  that  on  our  missionaries.     In  our  own  city  there  are 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  175 

slums  and  so-called  churches  of  half  a  dozen  false  faiths. 
Undeterred  and  unchecked,  these  are  chaining  souls  of 
men  and  women  to  doctrines  which  damn.  At  our  doors 
are  the  needy  blacks  by  thousands.  Such  conditions  are 
a  test  to  our  faith,  whether  it  is  indeed  shot  through  with 
the  missionary  spirit. 

They  do  not  see  the  need.  Ask  some  church  members 
for  contributions  to  missions  for  their  own  community  or 
State  or  nation,  and  they  wonder  why  the  money 
should  be  needed.  Ask  a  missionary  society  to  select 
'and  study  some  phase  of  Home  or  State  Missions,  and 
it  will  usually  choose  the  farthest-away  particular  ac- 
tivity that  the  work  embraces.  How  much  we  need  such 
a  readjustment  of  our  vision  of  spiritual  values  as  shall  en- 
able us  to  see  the  rich,  unmined  possibilities  of  the  near- 
at-hand.  If  we  want  to  be  like  our  Lord,  we  had  better 
earnestly  seek  it.  For  he  loved  and  saved  the  neglected, 
the  sinful  and  the  abandoned  who  crowded  about  him. 
He  saw  rich  and  blessed  possibilities  even  in  those  who 
were  marred  by  sin  and  baffled  and  stranded  in  the  life- 
struggle,  and  made  the  possible  a  blessed  reality.  Society 
Hill,  South  Carolina,  is  known  far  and  near  as  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  communities  in  the  Palmetto  State.  The 
people  are  of  Welsh  descent,  and  are  mainly  Baptists. 
Among  the  good  things  in  which  these  Baptists  have  led,  was 
the  distinguished  task  of  organizing  the  activity  among 
our  Baptist  women  which  has  now  become  the  powerful 
Woman's  Missionary  Union.  Recently  two  Mormon  elders 
came  into  my  office.  They  asserted  that  there  is  to-day  a 
thriving  Mormon  church  within  two  miles  of  Society  Hill. 
I  have  since  confirmed  their  statement.  In  Atlanta  there 
is  a  Mormon  church,  which  has  recently  erected  a  hand- 


176        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

some  house.  Where  it  stands  there  was  once  a  Presby- 
terian church.  A  prominent  Presbyterian  minister  told  me 
one  day,  as  we  travelled  together  on  a  train  toward  the 
Southwest,  that  two  of  the  families  in  this  Mormon  organ- 
ization were  once  Presbyterians.  Then  he  held  up  his 
hands  and  exclaimed:  "My  God,  what  sort  of  preaching 
did  that  Presbyterian  preacher  do?"  I  said:  "I  don't 
know.  But  I  venture  to  guess  that,  if  that  Mormon  church 
has  in  it  two  Presbyterian  families,  it  will  be  found  to  have 
six  Baptist  families."  Such  stories  might  be  multiplied 
endlessly.    Alas!    God's  people  so  often  do  not  see. 

Does  arithmetic  blind  us?  Arithmetically,  the  18,000,- 
000  persons  of  responsible  age  in  the  South  to-day  who 
make  no  profession  of  faith  are  not  impressive,  after  we 
have  learned  to  think  in  terms  of  hundreds  of  millions. 
Yet  these  legions  of  unsaved  among  our  own  people 
are  our  peculiar  opportunity  and  responsibility.  If  we 
do  not  lead  them  to  Christ,  who  will?  No  program 
of  world-saving  which  shuts  its  eyes  to  the  significance  of 
this  unconquered  territory  at  home  will  go  very  far  in  sub- 
duing nations  beyond.  Arithmetically,  35,000  white 
churches  in  the  South — Baptist,  Methodist  and  Presbyterian 
— with  their  doors  closed  from  preaching  service  three  Sun- 
days out  of  four,  are  not  impressive.  True,  these  make  up 
nearly  three-fourths  of  all  the  churches  through  which  these 
bodies  may  hope  to  nurture  the  religious  life  of  the  South. 
True,  these  three  bodies  in  most  of  the  South  have  the 
religious  following  of  nearly  all  the  population.  True, 
Christ  has  given  pastors  and  teachers  (Col.  4:12-14)  "for 
the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Chirst;  till  we  all  come  in 
the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  unto 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  177 

a  perfect  man,  *  *  *  that  we  henceforth  be  no  more 
children,  tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried  about  by  every 
wind  of  doctrine,  by  the  sleight  of  men  and  cunning  crafti- 
ness, whereby  they  He  in  wait  to  deceive."  True,  to  ac- 
compHsh  an  adequate  safeguarding  of  the  disciples  from  the 
craftiness  of  false  teachers  and  from  the  infantile  anaemia 
of  withheld  diet,  Paul  estabHshed  a  plurality  of  pastors  in 
the  New  Testament  churches,  so  that  teaching  might  abound. 
But  our  eyes  have  been  holden  from  seeing  how  this  ap- 
plies to  our  intenser  day.  With  most  of  the  churches  re- 
ceiving teaching  one  day  in  the  month,  and  getting  almost 
no  "work  of  the  ministry"  in  pastoral  service;  with  false 
faiths  preying  upon  the  people  whose  higher  spiritual  needs 
our  systems  have  not  provided  for;  with  an  alarming  mor- 
tality among  those  brought  into  the  churches  by  evangelism, 
from  lack  of  instruction  and  guidance,  very  many  of  God's 
people  in  the  South  either  do  not  see  their  responsibility, 
or  else  are  unwilling  to  accept  it.  For  the  most  part,  not 
even  has  our  trusted  leadership  seriously  tried  to  arouse 
our  people  to  the  situation. 

A  call  to  awaken.  Who  shall  solve  for  us  this  riddle  > 
Under  God  no  one  can  solve  it  but  ourselves.  Standing- 
still  churches  in  a  forward-going  civilization,  are  the  major 
part  of  our  trouble.  The  churches  must  become  dynamic. 
We  have  a  recognized  religious  leadership.  We  trust 
it  to  shape  ideals  for  us.  If  it  fails  to  point  to  us  the 
fundamental  principles  and  tasks,  we  shall  reconstruct  it 
when  we  come  to  find  out  its  unfitness.  If  it  prophesies 
smoothly  when  we  need  a  jolt,  we  shall  lose  respect  for  it. 
Let  every  man  with  a  voice  that  carries,  in  pulpit,  editor's 
chair.  Mission  Board  service,  the  presidency  of  our  schools, 
or    elsewhere,    consider    his    responsibility.     He    is    under 


178  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

obligation  to  point  our  people  to  the  things  which  are  most 
needed  by  them  in  their  present  situation.  Measured  by 
this  yardstick,  has  our  religious  leadership  in  the  South 
done  its  full  duty  about  warning  our  people  of  the  danger 
of  disaster  which  lies  in  indolently  holding  on  to  a  program 
that  utterly  fails  to  provide  adequate  instruction  to  our 
church  members,  and  leaves  tens  of  thousands  of  them  an 
easy  prey  to  false  teachings  from  peripatetic  fanatics 
and  in  godless  colleges  and  universities?  Is  it  true 
that  the  great  evangelical  church  membership  of  the 
South  is  so  indifferent  that  faithful  admonition  and  teach- 
ing by  honest.  God-fearing  men  cannot  arouse  in  it  a  vigor- 
ous response,  looking  to  the  vitalization  of  the  churches 
and  of  our  service  to  society?  It  would  be  unjust  to  make 
this  charge.  Some  of  the  noblest  Christian  men  and 
women  who  ever  lived  are  in  the  South.  But  what  a 
tragedy  it  would  be,  if  our  unhindered  opportunities  should 
prove  to  have  lulled  us  into  an  unappreciative  indifference, 
so  that  God  in  anger  should  have  to  take  away  from  us 
these  opportunities  because  in  our  blindness  we  despised 
them  I 

The  Chiistian  school  a  corrective.  I  have  mentioned 
educational  institutions  as  a  grave  danger  point  in  the 
conflict  with  false  faiths.  But  the  power  of  these  to  betray 
our  faith  is  not  greater  than  their  power  to  safeguard  it, 
if  they  shall  be  faithful  to  revealed  religion.  The  right 
arm  of  the  power  of  the  Christian  bodies  to  use  education 
for  Christ  lies  in  the  denominational  schools.  These  they 
control  and  can  protect  from  the  poison  of  the  secular 
movement  in  education,  which  received  its  impulse  in  Ger- 
many, though  there  is  a  recent  disposition  among  its  spon- 
sors  not   to   speak   of   its   paternity.      President  John   E. 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  179 

White,  of  the  Anderson  College,  South  Carolina,  in  the 
winter  of  1917,  published  an  article  of  exceptional  power 
on  the  need  of  the  Christian  college,  from  which  I  quote: 
"It  is  now  becoming  clearer  every  day  that  the  higher 
education  of  Germany  was  the  powerful  reinforcement  of 
barbarism.  The  colleges  and  universities  were  mighty  for 
science,  for  intellectualism,  for  efficiency,  and  for  ambi- 
tion, but  they  were  weak  for  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  for 
the  souls  of  the  people.  Our  leaders  in  secular  education 
are  frankly  disconcerted.  The  president  of  the  richest  and 
largest  university  in  the  United  States  has  given  frank 
expressions  to  misgivings  which  are  spreading.  He  says: 
'We  once  thought  if  we  could  put  higher  education  in  the 
reach  of  all  we  would  solve  the  problem  of  injustice, 
wrong,  and  evils  of  society.  But  we  have  found  that  to  be 
utterly  mistaken.  Men  do  not  do  what  they  know  they 
ought  to  do,  but  what  they  want  to  do.' "  I  must  inter- 
rupt the  quotation  to  comment  on  the  fact  that  the  cata- 
clysm in  Europe  has  opened  this  great  educator's  eyes  to 
see  what  he  might  have  learned  any  time  from  the  New 
Testament  or  from  any  real  Christian.  "Surrendering  its 
function  of  education,"  continues  Dr.  White,  "Christianity 
is  insomuch  no  longer  the  religion  of  Jesus.  If  it  is  im- 
portant to  have  Christianity  healthy  and  vigorous  and  to 
hold  secure  that  good  thing  which  was  delivered  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  Christian  college  is  indispensable.  Out 
of  the  colleges  comes  the  Christian  leadership,  the  teach- 
ers, the  writers,  the  thinkers.  Secular  education  needs 
the  Christian  college  to  influence  its  spirit  and  methods  in 
the  direction  of  the  Christian  ethic.  What  can  be  done  to 
impart  religious  instruction  in  the  public  schools?  The 
answer  is,  the  Christian  teacher.    A  new  and  great  field  of 


180        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

opportunity  is  here  open  to  the  Christian  college."  There 
is  no  single  influence  which  threatens  faith  in  a  super- 
natural religion  comparable  to  rationalistic  teaching  in  col- 
leges and  universities.  The  danger  itself  suggests  where 
lies  a  suitable  remedy.  It  is  in  the  Christian  college,  sec- 
ondary school  and  university.  There  is  good  ground  for 
hope  in  the  determined  effort  of  Baptists  in  practically 
every  Southern  State  to  raise  large  sums  to  strengthen 
their  colleges.  Never  was  the  mission  of  education  under 
Christian  auspices  so  evidently  necessary  as  it  has  become 
in  the  light  of  the  great  war.  There  is  hardly  any  single 
thing  we  can  do  which  will  count  more  for  the  faith  of 
the  future  than  greatly  to  strengthen  our  Christian  schools. 
At  the  same  time,  we  must  frankly  exercise  caution  that 
the  canker  of  rationalistic  philosophy  does  not  sneak  even 
into  these  institutions,  and  must  insist  that  they  shall  be 
saturated  with  the  spirit  of  faith  and  evangelism. 

Other  aTailaUe  remedies.  Much  might  be  written  on 
proper  means  for  meeting  and  offsetting  the  false  faiths  of 
to-day,  but  a  single  additional  paragraph  must  suffice. 
Like  the  lions  who  blocked  the  path  of  Bunyan's  pilgrim, 
these  sons  of  Anak  present  a  fearsome  spectacle  to  the 
timorous.  But  if  we  shall  live  and  labor  in  the  strength 
of  our  God,  we  are  well  able  to  overcome  them.  We  do 
not  need  new  and  strange  armor,  but  in  faith  and  conse- 
cration to  use  what  God  has  already  given  us.  (1)  In  the 
public  ministry  of  the  pastor  he  has  an  unsurpassed  oppor- 
tunity to  teach  the  people  the  truth  and  to  warn  them 
against  error.  Not  enough  doctrinal  teaching  is  done  in 
our  pulpits.  We  plume  ourselves  that  the  polemical  ran- 
cour of  a  past  generation  has  forever  gone.  That  had 
its  faults,  but  it  is  a  greater  fault  to  dodge  the  clear  and 


FALSE  FAITHS  AND  OTHER  FOES  181 

forceful  teaching  of  scriptural  doctrines,  because  some 
sensitive  soul  may  squirm.  It  is  cowardly  not  to  set  forth 
teachings  which  cluster  around  the  great  central  doctrine 
of  the  deity  of  Christ.  We  urgently  need  a  great  revival 
of  doctrinal  preaching.  (2)  In  his  personal  visitations 
the  pastor  has  in  some  respects  even  a  better  opportunity 
to  fortify  them  against  error.  He  can  thus  adapt  his  in- 
struction to  individual  needs.  (3)  A  good  Sunday-school 
can  accomplish  great  results.  Capable  teachers  have  an 
approach  in  the  class  work  which  affords  an  invaluable 
opportunity  to  present  doctrinal  truth  and  show  the  danger 
of  the  fair-seeming  formulas  with  which  Antichrist  errors 
seek  to  make  converts.  (4)  The  Young  People's  Unions 
have  in  doctrinal  instruction  one  of  their  most  useful  po- 
tencies. They  reach  young  men  and  women  just  when 
they  are  beginning  seriously  to  formulate  their  beliefs  and 
can  do  untold  good  by  rightly  guiding  the  youthful  en- 
quirers. (5)  The  local  missionary  organization  should 
give  attention  to  teaching  doctrinal  truth.  At  home  and 
abroad  much  of  our  missionary  effort  is  directed  to  saving 
people  from  ruinous  errors  in  faith.  The  societies  through 
which  we  foster  and  study  missions  cannot  perform  their 
whole  function  without  studying  to  know  the  truth  and 
to  understand  the  snare  of  Antichrist  errors.  (6)  Our 
denominational  papers  have  done  much  to  teach  the  Bible 
doctrines.  We  should  let  them  know  we  appreciate  their 
efforts,  and  call  upon  them  to  meet  the  present  Antichrist 
emergencies  by  a  fresh  study  and  setting  forth  of  the  doc- 
trinal dangers  and  needs  of  the  present  day.  In  a  time 
when  there  are  powerful  organized  efforts  to  discredit  doc- 
trinal stalwartness  and  denominational  loyalty,  let  the  de- 
nominational paper  stand  to  its  guns,  asking  no  quarter 


182        THE  CALL  OP  THE  SOUTH 

from  error  and  giving  none,  loving  men  but  obeying  and 
fearing  God.  This  applies  to  other  Christian  denomina- 
tions, as  well  as  Baptists.  (7)  We  need  more  tracts  and 
books  which  shall  set  forth  the  truth.  They  must  be  pre- 
pared under  the  direction  of  a  responsible  Christian  body. 
We  should  multiply  the  circulation  of  doctrinal  tracts.  Our 
Sunday  School  Board  has  published  an  admirable  series. 
We  must  prepare  and  circulate  books  for  Mission  Study 
and  for  the  general  reader  that  shall  set  forth  saUent  doc- 
trinal truths  in  a  way  that  shall  instruct  the  unwary  how 
to  avoid  the  nets  which  Antichrist  fowlers  spread  for  their 
feet.  If  we  shall  live  and  teach  the  truth,  God  will  give 
us  the  victory. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  VIII. 

1.  Name  some  doctrines  of  Romanism,  and  show  the  danger  of 
its  political  activities. 

2.  Name  some  doctrines  of  Mormonism  and  of  Russellism,  and 
show  that  they  are  Antichrist  sects. 

3.  Describe  Holy  Rollerism,  and  show  that  our  neglect  to  teach 
the  people  gives  it  its  opportunity. 

4.  Give  a  brief  exp>osition  of  the  false  teachings  of  Christian 
Science. 

5.  Show  wherein  weak-kneed  preachers  and  indiflFerent  church 
members  are  responsible  for  false  faiths  and  for  the  weak- 
ness of  denominational  effort  to  save  the  people  from  sin 
and  such  destructive  errors. 

6.  Show  that  the  Scriptures  hold  us  responsible  for  instructing 
the  people  to  safeguard  them  from  such  errors. 

7.  Name  the  powerful  corrective  agencies  which  are  in  our 
hands,  and  discuss  our  obligations  to  use  them. 


CHAPTER  DC. 

SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

The  situation.  More  than  three-fourths  of  Southern 
Christendom  is  rural.  Much  of  the  rest  of  it  is  fresh  from 
rural  traditions  and  from  the  strength  and  weakness  of 
rural  church  tutelage.  A  large  teaching  task  is  yet  to  be 
done  in  our  urban  churches.  But  it  will  add  to  definite- 
ness  and  will  touch  the  great  fountain  head  of  the  nur- 
turing need  in  the  churches  of  the  South  if  this  chapter 
shall  confine  itself  to  glimpsing  the  vitalization  needs  in 
rural  churches.  It  is  not  meant  to  imply  that  country 
churches  are  in  greater  peril  than  city  churches,  or  that 
they  are  more  delinquent  in  seeing  and  seizing  opportuni- 
ties for  spiritual  service.  "In  perils  in  the  city"  was  one 
item  in  Paul's  amazing  catalog  of  experiences  that  many 
a  city  preacher  has  painfully  verified.  In  the  struggling 
tides  of  life  in  a  growing  city,  many  churches  are  on  the 
defensive  and  many  have  been  wrecked  by  the  fierce  social 
and  economic  competitions  and  conflicts.  But,  as  a  rough 
sea  makes  a  good  sailor,  so  many  a  city  church  has  grown 
strong  in  overcoming  an  unfriendly  environment.  If  one 
were  comparing  and  contrasting  city  and  country  churches, 
it  would  not  result  unfavorably  to  the  quiet  church  em- 
bosomed in  the  affections  of  a  rural  community.  The 
country  church  has  been  and  will  continue  to  be  the  chief 
inspirer  of  rural  life,  and  a  high  and  satisfying  rural  life 
is  essenticil  to  our  national  and  social  welfare,  doubly  so 
in  the  South,  where  the  Government  Census  of  1910  shows 


184  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

rural  life  to  be  more  than  eighty  percent  in  many  of  the 
States.  As  it  now  stands,  the  country  church  has  lost  much 
of  its  prestige  and  its  power  to  inspire  rural  life.  It  did 
no  evil  act  which  brought  this  result.  It  simply  did  too 
nearly  nothing.  The  country  church  has  remained  static 
in  a  dynamic  environment,  and  out  of  that  has  grown  its 
troubles.  In  substance.  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell  said  the  same 
thing  when  he  declared  concerning  Baptists:  "We  have 
evangelized  and  we  have  baptized,  but  we  have  not  taught, 
and  out  of  that  have  come  most  of  our  troubles." 

The  dynamic  environment.  Marvelous  changes  have 
taken  place  in  rural  life.  Within  the  last  generation,  its 
intensity  has  been  multiplied  manifold.  Transportation 
and  the  building  of  cities  have  furnished  new  and  far 
larger  markets  for  produce,  and  have  brought  to  the 
farmer  himself  new  contacts  and  wooings  from  his  iso- 
lation. Farmers'  colleges  and  newspapers,  and  farm  bul- 
letins and  demonstrators,  furnished  by  the  government, 
have  conspired  to  teach  him  that  there  is  much  more  in 
his  job  than  he  thought.  Good  roads,  rural  mail  delivery, 
telephones,  and  automobiles  have  multiplied  his  contacts 
by  ten,  and  needed  legislation  has  at  last  untied  his  hands, 
so  that  he  may  run  the  race  without  discriminatory  dis- 
advantages. The  last  word  in  conservatism  though  the 
farmer  is,  these  forces  have  broken  up  his  opposition  to 
change  and  also  his  belief  that  change  is  unnecessary  and 
impossible.  They  have  literally  shaken  him  into  an  aware- 
ness that  a  new  day  has  dawned  on  the  farm.  No  longer  is 
farming  an  unending  routine  of  taking  in  and  wearing  out 
more  acres.  It  has  become  the  intensive  business  of  get- 
ting more  out  of  the  acres,  while  conserving  their  fertility. 
The  old  farmer  was  a  pioneer.    Soil-robbery  was  his  daily 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  185 

task,  and  he  had  no  conscience  about  it.  The  new  farmer 
farms  with  his  brain  as  well  as  his  brawn.  He  puts  back 
into  the  soil  the  fertility  which  his  predecessor  took  away, 
and  makes  old  fields  produce  more  than  the  virgin  soil 
did  for  his  forebears. 

The  church  is  still  pioneering.  What  the  new  farmer  has 
done  for  the  soil,  the  new  religious  program  has  not  done 
for  the  country  church.  Indeed,  the  new  religious  pro- 
gram has  not  yet  gotten  itself  into  running  order,  so  far 
as  the  country  church  is  concerned.  When  we  were  mak- 
ing programs  we  were  almost  never  thinking  of  the  needs 
of  the  quiet  church  by  the  roadside.  More  obvious  ap- 
peals from  places  where  the  challenge  was  louder  and 
under  influential  observation,  have  filled  our  thoughts.  In 
the  perspective  the  country  church  seemed  far  away  and 
it  had  no  voice.  So  it  did  not  seem  to  matter  so  much, 
especially  as  we  were  continually  getting  for  the  towns, 
anyhow,  about  all  the  little  church  had  to  give.  It  was 
an  undiscerning  judgment  and  it  has  done  our  religious 
bodies  no  credit.  It  amounts  to  this,  that  in  regard  to 
the  rural  churches,  the  pioneer  program  of  a  century  ago 
is  usually  still  in  undisturbed  operation.  Spiritual  soil- 
robbery  is  still  being  habitually  practiced.  In  the  country 
churches  we  evangelize  and  we  baptize,  taking  from  the 
virgin  field  that  which  it  can  give  quickly  to  the  first- 
comer  and  the  infrequent-comer.  Even  with  such  poor 
attention  these  churches  have  produced  our  preachers  and 
most  of  the  men  and  women  for  city  churches  and  tasks. 
We  have  not  faithfully  taught  in  the  rural  churches.  We 
have  taken  all  they  had  to  give,  but  we  have  not,  by 
faithful  nurturing,  put  back  into  them  the  intensive  effort 
which  would  renew  the  springs  of  their  spiritual  fertility. 


186  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Like  pioneers,  we  have  robbed  the  soil.     And  out  of  that 
most  of  our  troubles  have  come. 

Tronbles  kave  come.  The  troubles  which  have  come 
from  a  system  that  was  strong  in  evangeHsm  and  weak 
in  teaching  and  pastoral  care,  apply  to  all  Christian  bodies 
in  the  rural  South.  But  I  have  in  mind  mainly  our  Bap- 
tist people,  in  naming  here  some  of  the  evils  which  have 
developed:  (1)  The  loss  of  influence  on  the  part  of  rural 
churches,  so  that  they  are  in  most  cases  not  holding  the 
people  and  inspiring  the  community  Hfe.  (2)  The  failure 
of  a  large  number  of  these  churches  to  participate  in  the 
co-operative  work  of  missions  and  benevolence.  (3)  Their 
failure  to  equip  their  members  so  that  they  may  capably 
stand  for  Christ  and  serve  others,  after  they  leave  the 
country  home  for  the  city.  Witness  tens  of  thousands  of 
so-called  "trunk"  Baptists  in  the  cities.  (4)  The  loss  of  a 
large  percent  of  our  converts  to  the  world  and  to  false 
faiths.  The  figures  in  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
statistical  tables  show  that  this  loss  has  in  the  last  twenty 
years  reached  the  staggering  total  of  thirty-seven  precent 
of  the  entire  number  baptized.  (5)  A  do-little  religious 
program  in  our  do-much  day  has  helped  to  drive  many 
to  a  so-called  do-much  religion  which  does  not  believe  in 
Christ  as  Lord  and  Saviour.  (6)  Our  failure  to  do  more 
to  take  the  city  for  Christ  is  in  part  a  result  of  our  having 
done  so  little  for  the  country.  When  the  people  were  in 
an  environment  where  it  was  relatively  easy  to  reach  and 
teach  them,  we  provided  a  minimum  of  effort  to  do  it; 
when  they  come  to  the  city,  we  greatly  intensify  our  ef- 
forts. If  we  would  do  more  for  them  where  the  effort 
would  have  the  better  opportunity,  we  would  not  so  often 
fail  with  intense  efforts  in  the  city.    These  are  some  of  the 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  187 

troubles.  If  we  should  cancel  all  of  them  but  the  first, 
there  would  still  be  abundant  cause  for  us  to  enlarge  our 
efforts  to  secure  in  the  country  church,  a  program  which 
shall  help  to  cure  the  chronic  evils  of  spiritual  soil-robbery. 
A  bill  of  particiilan.  In  "G>untry  Church  in  the  South" 
I  devoted  the  larger  part  of  the  volume  to  diagnosing  the 
country  church's  needs,  on  the  theory  that  you  cannot 
cure  until  you  can  get  the  patient  and  his  friends  to 
realize  that  he  is  ill.  It  will  sii£ce  here  to  give  in  bare 
outline  some  of  the  more  obvious  particulars  of  the  inade- 
quacy of  our  rural  church  progreim.  Of  24,600  churches 
in  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  more  than  20,000  are 
rural.  Of  the  rural  churches,  not  fewer  than  18,000  have 
preaching  only  once  monthly  and  as  many  are  served  by 
absentee  pastors.  The  figures  for  the  white  Methodists  are 
almost  as  distressing.  In  the  South  these  two  bodies  are 
almost  the  entire  dependence  to  serve  the  spiritual  needs 
of  the  29,000,000  persons  who  live  in  a  rural  environment 
Together  they  have  33,000  once-a-month  rural  churches, 
out  of  their  entire  number  of  36,500  country  churches,  and 
29,000  have  not  a  resident  pastor.  This  is  enough  to 
arouse  any  one  who  can  be  reached  by  figures,  but  there 
are  other  depressing  conditions.  The  36,500  rural  churches 
are  served  by  about  9,500  ministers,  5,000  of  them  Bap- 
tists. All  Methodist  prea<jhers  are  required  to  do  at  least 
certain  non-resident  theological  reading.  This  is  about  all 
most  of  their  rural  preachers  have  in  vocational  training. 
The  Baptist  situation  is  both  better  and  worse;  better  in 
some  hundreds  of  country  preachers  who  have  had  regular 
theological  training  and  a  considerably  larger  number  who 
have  had  college  training,  but  worse  in  a  large  nvunber 
who  have  had  no  special  training  at  all,  some  of  them  not 


188  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

more  than  a  partial  common  school  training.  These 
preachers  usually  make  their  support  largely  from  some 
other  source  than  preaching.  The  average  salary  of  one 
of  our  Baptist  country  preachers  who  is  preaching  full- 
time  is  possibly  more  than  $600.  But  the  average  wage 
paid  by  the  once-a-month  churches  is  hardly  above  $100, 
which  would  be  about  $400  for  all  of  the  preacher's  time. 
Not  only  is  the  little-as-possible  program  the  rule  in 
preaching  and  pastoral  support.  The  same  holds  in  regard 
to  subsidary  church  organizations.  Practically  all  of  the 
once-a-month  churches  have  no  mission  society  and  nearly 
half  of  them  have  no  Sunday-school. 

A  doctrinal  consideratioii.  Christian  doctrine  is  New 
Testament  teaching.  There  are  some  in  our  age  who  have 
cultivated  an  extreme  dislike  for  doctrine,  for  definite  New 
Testament  teaching.  The  once-a-month  country  church 
has  litde  enough  teaching  to  please  even  those  writers 
and  speakers  who  are  now  figuring  so  prominently  in  the 
effort  to  turn  popular  opinion  against  denominational 
loyalty.  We  may  yet  need  to  revise  our  time-honored 
saying  that  country  churches  are  the  great  conservators  of 
Christian  doctrines.  This  was  once  true  and  it  is  true  yet 
in  some  of  them.  It  is  not  true  in  any  adequate  sense  in 
a  large  number  of  once-a-month  churches.  Once  these 
communities  held  little  commerce  with  the  world.  The 
churches  had  infrequent  teaching,  but  there  was  more 
leisure  and  inclination  for  mediation  and  Bible  reading. 
Left  to  themselves,  they  did  not  feel  the  wooings  of  the 
impulse  to  tone  down  belief  to  please  others.  In  those 
days  their  preachers,  through  newspapers  and  magazines, 
and  through  the  town  environment  where  most  of  them 
now  live,  had  not  been  bombarded  by  a  propaganda  that 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  189 

was  contemptuous  of  doctrine  and  made  a  god  out  of 
liberalism  and  conformity.  That  is  changed  now.  More 
sorely  pressed  than  formerly  with  whatever  substitute  for 
tent-making  he  finds  at  hand  for  securing  a  living,  the 
country  preacher  discovers  that  he  is  in  a  world  where 
assiduously-cultivated  popular  opinion  is  becoming  intol- 
erant of  doctrinal  truth,  and  in  conditions  in  which  it  is 
difficult  to  study  as  he  ought,  even  when  he  knows  how 
to  study.  When  he  goes  to  preach,  he  often  finds  himself 
before  an  audience  which  in  the  Sunday  supplement  and 
magazines  has  had  it  suggested  how  bad  and  narrow  it 
is  to  believe  in  Scriptural  doctrines  not  accepted  by  every- 
body else.  Then,  the  old  polemic  does  not  suffice,  how- 
ever true  it  may  be.  The  truth  of  God's  word  abides. 
But  a  preacher  must  intelligently  sense  the  problems  of 
the  people  to  whom  he  preaches,  if  he  is  to  set  forth  that 
truth  so  as  to  inform  and  satisfy,  and  many  of  our  country 
preachers  are  not  doing  the  study  necesasry  thus  to  in- 
terpret God's  message.  I  could  wish  the  above  was  an 
over-statement  of  facts,  but  the  testimony  of  competent 
and  sympathetic  observers  verifies  it.  Both  preachers  and 
churches  need  from  us  understanding  sympathy  and  un- 
tiring aid,  until  the  rural  church  shall  function  adequately 
in  its  twentieth  century  environment. 

Should  the  denominatioii  help?  As  a  means  for  aiding 
rural  churches  to  function  more  perfectly,  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Board,  four  years  ago,  acting  under  the  Convention's 
instructions,  created  an  EnHstment  Department.  Though 
the  name  suggests  campaign  methods  to  secure  larger  co- 
operative efforts,  rather  than  patient  nurturing  methods  to 
enlarge  the  content  of  the  Christian  life  through  providing 
more  teaching  of  the  engrafted  word,  the  Department  seeks 


190  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

to  accomplish  the  latter  rather  than  the  former.  It  in- 
creases co-operative  effort  through  enlarging  the  Christian 
life  and  motive — ^which  God  intended  we  should  do.  The 
Enlistment  effort  has  been  blessed  with  success.  But  until 
now  it  has  been  conducted  on  so  restricted  a  scale  that 
the  denomination  at  large  has  not  had  a  near  view  of  its 
potentialities.  The  present  indications  are  that  our  people 
are  slowly  coming  to  realize  that  they  must  do  something 
large  and  worthy  to  help  to  bring  again  into  their  own 
the  mass  of  rural  churches.  The  Enlistment  Department 
has  given  the  Home  Mission  Board  a  good  opportunity 
to  conduct  a  sustained  educational  propaganda  in  which 
the  needs  and  claims  of  rural  life  and  church  are  pre- 
sented, and  this  the  Board  has  done  with  enthusiasm  and 
conviction.  It  is  hoped  that  the  number  of  Enlistment 
Workers  shall  yet  be  much  increased.  But,  however  much 
good  these  may  accomplish,  the  task  is  larger  than  hun- 
dreds of  such  specialists  will  soon  be  able  to  perform. 
The  whole  denomination  must  make  a  re-appraisement  of 
rural  church  and  country  life  values.  It  must  come  to 
see  that  stupendous  issues  are  at  stake  in  what  we  shall 
do  or  fail  to  do  to  aid  the  rural  life  and  church  to  attain 
that  fuller  content  which  shall  comport  with  an  age  of 
electric  progress. 

Self-help  by  the  chnrch.  The  accumulated  inerta  which 
has  come  about  in  thousands  of  churches  will  not  be 
changed  into  mobility  and  progress  without  loving  and 
patient  aid  and  inspiration  from  without.  But,  first  or 
last,  the  success  of  the  church  in  doing  its  appointed  task 
will  depend  on  itself.  There  are  two  or  three  essentials 
that  lie  at  the  foundation  of  any  program  which  may  be 
expected  to  succeed.     If  the  churches  would  look  after 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  191 

these,  or  if  the  pastor  would  work  to  their  accomplishment, 
it  would  obviate  the  necessity  of  much  Enlistment  work. 
To  name  only  three:  More  preaching  than  once-a-month, 
more  pastoral  services  than  an  absentee  preacher  can  give, 
and  more  pastoral  support  than  a  pittance  which  leaves 
the  pastor  largely  under  the  necessity  for  self-support,  are 
remedies  which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  any  program  which 
can  possibly  cure  the  present  ills  of  the  country  church. 
These  requirements  are  commonplace,  but  fundamental. 
If  we  are  to  be  worthy  of  our  own  highest  self-respect,  we 
will  not  allow  ourselves  to  withhold  our  hands  from  grap- 
pling with  fundamentals  on  which  hang  great  issues,  be- 
cause, forsooth,  the  task  is  not  bedecked  with  the  garlands 
of  romance,  but  is  homely,  as  are  the  ofl&ces  of  love — and 
as  beautiful.  The  churches  must  help  themselves,  but  the 
denomination  must  also  aid,  if  it  is  to  justify  the  confidence 
reposed  in  it  by  the  churches  for  wise  leadership  and  com- 
prehending love  and  fellowship. 

The  country  preacher.  As  a  class,  country  preachers 
have  an  uneven  load  to  carry.  They  have  been  much  ad- 
vised by  others  and  not  always  with  fine  sympathy  or 
understanding.  The  country  preacher  carries  uneven  bur- 
dens, but  he  is  not  as  a  rule  doing  the  work  that  is  needed 
in  our  rural  churches.  In  character  and  devotion  he  ranks 
as  well  as  his  urban  brother.  In  his  work,  he  has  usually 
turned  his  back  upon  those  ambitions  for  advancement 
and  social  and  educational  advantages  which  figure  largely 
in  the  average  town  preacher's  choice  of  a  field,  and  which, 
to  say  the  least,  are  not  to  be  classed  as  missionary  mo- 
tives. The  country  preacher  has  pegged  away  at  a  job 
that  is  so  poorly  paid  that  he  cannot  live  on  the  stipend, 
and  in  which  he  usually  sees  little  chance  unaided  of  pull- 


192  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ing  the  churches  out  of  deep  and  discouraging  ruts.  He 
often  has  to  see  many  of  the  brightest  and  best  young  peo- 
ple he  has  evangelized  depart  for  the  city,  where,  with 
many  like  them  from  other  inconspicuous  country  churches, 
they  make  up  perhaps  most  of  the  strength  of  an  urban 
church  that  pays  its  relatively  prominent  preacher  a  much 
better  salary.  This  country  preacher  does  not  want  or 
need  our  pity.  But  he  does  need  our  understanding,  co- 
operation and  love.  It  is  true  that  there  are  country 
preachers  who  are  narrow  and  almost  hopelessly  opposed 
to  progress.  This  complicates  the  situation.  Faithful  rural 
preachers  have  to  bear  the  reproach  created  by  these 
"slackers,"  in  the  minds  of  those  who  do  not  discriminate. 
But  the  fact  stands  that  country  preachers  bear  an  un- 
even load — the  dead  weight  of  these  ordained  slackers  be- 
ing part  of  their  burden.  We  must  appeal  for  missionary 
spirit  on  the  part  of  young  preachers,  in  connection  v^th 
the  rural  field,  the  spirit  to  sacrifice  ambition  and  worldly 
advantages  for  the  sake  of  Christ.  We  must  invite  many 
of  our  most  capable  young  preachers  to  consider  the  spir- 
itual value  of  a  life  which  will  be  underestimated  by  an 
uncomprehending  public  opinion,  and  sometimes  discredited 
even  in  those  religious  circles  where  the  ideals  of  these 
young  men  are  molded,  but  which  will  mean  the  lifting  up 
of  the  lives  and  enlarging  the  outlook  of  people  in  entire 
communities,  to  a  degree  not  often  accomplished  by  a  city 
pastor.  Our  churches  should  earnestly  pray  God  to  raise 
up  many  such  young  men  for  rural  pulpits  and  that  he 
may  forgive  us  for  the  dulness  of  spiritual  comprehension 
which  has  made  us  neglect  great  things. 

Two  datie*  of  preachers.    I  wish  to  name  two  particular 
things  which  our  ministers  can  do  that  will  greatly  help. 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  193 

The  country  pastor  can  preach  to  the  churches  on  their 
obligation  to  support  their  pastors,  and  the  pastor  from 
the  county  seat  or  other  principal  town  in  the  district  can 
give  some  of  his  time  to  preaching  to  the  country  churches 
and  showing  them  the  way  into  a  fuller  life  and  service. 
Rev.  R.  J.  Pirkey,  of  Longview,  Texas,  accomplished  strik- 
ing results  by  thus  aiding  surrounding  country  pastors  and 
churches,  and  the  service  reacted  on  his  Longview  people 
to  the  increase  of  their  religious  vitality.  The  county-seat 
pastor  practically  always  has  the  confidence  and  good  will 
of  the  surrounding  churches.  His  place  gives  him  good 
repute  and  opens  the  way  for  his  efforts  to  count  for  their 
full  value.  The  same  may  be  said  of  laymen  in  the  county- 
seat  church,  who  are  known  and  usually  highly  respected 
by  the  people  throughout  the  surrounding  county.  They 
could  often  serve  their  own  church  better  on  Sunday  by 
going  out  and  helping  needy  country  churches  than  by 
sitting  under  the  pastor's  sermon.  Pastor  Pirkey  says: 
"Lack  of  vision  on  the  part  of  the  county-seat  church  is, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  responsible  for  the  condition  in 
the  surrounding  country  churches."  The  country  preacher 
has  almost  never  preached  to  his  people  about  their  duty 
to  support  the  pastor,  and  for  this  he  is  not  without  blame. 
In  First  and  Second  Corinthians  and  in  our  Lord's  own 
words  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  God  intends  that 
they  who  preach  the  gospel  shall  live  of  the  gospel.  The 
tent-making  of  Paul  at  Corinth,  studied  and  understood, 
only  confirms  this  teaching.  A  certain  sensitiveness  has 
kept  the  preachers  from  preaching  the  truth  of  Scripture 
on  this  subject,  but  they  should  have  done  their  duty  in 
the  matter.   The  miserable  dole  with  which  many  a  church 


194  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

still  satisfies  its  conscience  in  pastoral  support  is  partly  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  the  pastor  has  not  been  faithful 
in  preaching  a  truth  which  the  narrow  and  prejudiced 
might  pervert. 

An  educated  minutry.  Space  does  not  permit  the  re- 
hearsal of  our  Baptist  attitude  toward  an  educated  min- 
istry; still  less  an  adequate  portrayal  of  how  we  have 
for  many  years,  not  without  success,  plead  for  more  edu- 
cated preachers,  careful  always  not  to  offend  good  men 
who  had  not  enjoyed  scholastic  training.  Speeches  on 
ministerial  education  before  our  Associations  and  other 
gatherings  have  had  with  painful  care  to  deal  in  an  un- 
varying set  of  preambles  and  exceptions,  to  clear  the  way 
for  the  educational  appeal.  I  raise  the  question,  has 
not  the  time  come  when  we  may  forsake  some  of 
these  time-honored  explanations,  and  definitely  advise  the 
churches  to  put  a  test  to  candidates  for  ordination  as  to 
whether  they  are  willing  to  do  all  they  can  do  to  prepare 
themselves  by  study  for  the  teaching  responsibilities  to 
which  they  propose  to  devote  their  lives?  The  opportuni- 
ties for  a  young  preacher  to  educate  himself  are  many 
times  better  than  they  were  in  the  days  of  our  fathers. 
Any  young  preacher  can  get  an  education,  if  he  has  the 
kind  of  determination  that  is  likely  to  accomplish  much. 
The  young  people  of  the  country  are  being  better  educated 
than  formerly  and  twice  as  many  of  them  are  receiving 
some  education.  How  can  an  untaught  man  believe  himself 
fit  to  teach  taught  people,  in  a  vocation  one  of  whose  scrip- 
tural perquisites  is  aptness  to  teach?  God  is  not  de- 
pendent either  on  our  learning  or  our  ignorance,  but  if  we 
would  become  God's  official  spokesmen  to  our  fellows,  how 
dare  we  presume  to  discredit  the  value  of  an  honest  devo- 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  195 

tion  to  that  study  which  Paul  commended  to  Timothy? 
Fortunately  there  is  growing  up  among  the  churches  a  gen- 
eral demand  for  educated  preachers  and  a  refusal  to  call 
men  who  have  not  studied.  We  must  help  all  the  preach- 
ers we  now  have  to  a  fuller  efficiency,  regardless  of  their 
educational  advantages.  But  the  time  has  come  when 
we  must  recommend  to  churches  that  they  shall  decline  to 
ordain  to  the  ministry  any  man  who  does  not  heartily 
agree  by  faithful  study  to  do  all  he  possibly  can  to  pre- 
pare himself  for  the  ministry.  Many  of  our  preachers  who 
had  no  educational  advantages  are  seeing  this  and  telling 
young  preachers  so.  The  churches,  thus  advised,  will 
generally  act  on  the  advice,  for  the  shoe  is  beginning  to 
pinch  these  churches.  Their  educated  young  people  are 
declining  to  go  to  hear  men  preach  whose  knowledge  and 
outlook  on  life  are  more  meagre  than  their  own. 

Pastoral  support  I  often  think  of  our  country  church 
troubles  in  the  figure  of  a  circle,  around  the  inside  of 
which  are  moving  a  church  and  a  preacher.  The  church 
is  saying,  If  we  had  more  pastoral  service  and  better  preach- 
ing, we  would  pay  a  better  support  for  the  pastor.  The 
preacher  is  saying,  If  I  had  a  better  support,  I  would  stop 
this  once-a-month  makeshift  and  do  more  pastoral  work 
and  better  preaching.  Some  thousands  of  churches  and 
preachers  have  been  engaged  in  this  unprofitable  journey 
around  the  circle  for  many  years.  The  denominational 
problem  is  to  break  this  circle  and  get  the  church  and 
preacher  into  action  along  a  tangent  that  will  lead  some- 
where. Selfishness  and  worldly  wisdom  cannot  do  it.  But 
love  and  a  Christ-like  spirit  of  sympathy  and  helpfulness 
can  and  will  break  it.  There  are  still  other  churches  and 
preachers  so  dazed  and  helpless  that  they  do  not  say  any- 


196  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

thing.  We  will  not  cure  the  country  church  ills  without 
preachers  of  vision  and  consecration  and  missionary  spirit; 
they  must  be  ready  to  dare  the  task  of  making  bricks  with- 
out straw;  taking  their  chances  on  'tent-making'  as  a  sup- 
plemental expedient,  believing  that  God  will  show  the  way. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  solution  of  this  problem  awaits  a 
larger  and  more  adequate  support  of  the  pastors.  The  poor 
wage  paid  preachers  is  the  shame  of  American  Christianity, 
and  the  country  churches  of  the  South  are  about  at  the 
bottom  of  the  list.  Farmers  who  ride  in  $700  automobiles 
and  spend  thousands  on  farm  machinery  are  still  giving 
only  a  pittance  to  support  the  institutions  of  religion  in 
their  communities.  In  the  realms  of  business  and  pleasure, 
and  sometimes  of  education  for  their  children,  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  thousands;  but  in  the  field  of  the  church  it  is  often 
still  nickels  and  dimes.  One  thing  we  must  have,  if  we 
are  to  cure  the  country  church's  inability  to  serve  its  day, 
is  an  ability  on  the  part  of  the  farmers  to  think  in  large 
terms  in  religion  as  well  as  business,  and  to  give  accord- 
ingly. We  must  have  more  educated  preachers,  who  shall, 
for  Christ's  sake,  sacrifice  the  ambitions  of  other  men  for 
the  prizes  of  this  life,  in  order  that  they  may  serve.  But 
the  church  must  wake  up  too.  It  must  do  some  sacri- 
ficing and  some  giving.  If  we  should  strike  a  balance 
of  the  record  to  date,  it  would  be  found  that  the  preachers 
have  done  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  sacrificing. 

A  re-appraisement  needed.  A  re-appraisement  of  the 
country  church  and  rural  life  is  necessary.  The  religion 
of  Christ  has  done  more  for  the  country  than  all  other 
forces  combined,  but  the  denominational  conventions,  con- 
ferences and  agencies  of  effort  in  which  the  ideals  of  our 
religious  bodies  head  up,  have  been  about  the  last  of  all 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  197 

the  agencies  which  serve  society  to  get  awake  to  the  fact 
that  something  must  be  done  to  quicken  rural  Hfe.  The 
Country  Life  Commission,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  State  col- 
leges and  universities,  the  agricultural  schools,  the  farm 
press  and  the  national  government,  through  its  new  policy 
of  helpful  legislation,  have  all  become  active  in  aiding 
country  life  to  readjust  itself  to  new  and  untried  condi- 
tions, while  for  the  most  part  the  religious  bodies  have 
not  yet  gotten  beyond  the  stage  of  disposing  of  the  country 
church  by  weakly  lamenting  the  difficulties  and  remarking 
that  the  preacher  is  "the  key  to  the  situation."  So  is  the 
farmer  "they  key  to  the  situation,"  but  his  friends  have 
not  therefore  left  him  without  any  serious  effort  to  im- 
prove the  conditions  under  which  he  lives  and  works. 
Throughout  its  entire  history,  every  considerable  Christian 
body  in  the  South  has  gotten  from  the  country  church  its 
preachers,  its  boys  and  girls  for  the  Christian  schools,  and 
most  of  the  men  and  women  for  leadership  in  the  city 
churches  and  tasks.  Each  of  them  is  still  depending  on 
the  country  church  for  moral  and  spiritual  reinforcements 
for  service  and  leadership.  Is  it  because  the  little  country 
church  mother  has  just  given  and  given  and  made  no 
complaint  that  we  have  seemingly  become  incapable  of 
seeing  that  the  lusty  denominational  child  should  in  the 
day  of  the  mother's  need  consider  the  mute  appeal  of  love 
and  the  peremptory  challenge  of  the  square  deal  in  com- 
mon, ordinary  things?  Perhaps  through  the  exercise  of 
filial  care  we  should  find  that,  in  the  non-spectacular  tasks 
of  ordinary  justice  and  common  fairness,  we  had  stumbled 
on  to  the  truest  strategy  and  the  greatest  statesmanship. 
Educational  re-adjustment.  Both  colleges  and  theo- 
logical seminaries  need  to  come  to  a  re-appraisement  of 


198       THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  significance  of  country  life  and  the  country  church. 
Colleges  can  open  the  eyes  of  students  to  rural  life  values 
in  a  way  that  will  send  many  of  them  back  to  the  country, 
where  their  lives  would  mean  more  to  themselves  and 
others.  But  they  cannot  do  it,  if  they  themselves  have 
no  vision  of  the  significance  of  a  full  and  satisfying  rural 
life.  Theological  seminaries  have  a  great  responsibility 
in  this  connection.  With  their  buildings  and  class  rooms 
filled  with  a  student  body  ninety  to  ninety-five  percent  of 
whom  were  reared  in  the  country  or  small  towns,  what  an 
odd  spectacle,  in  this  day  of  great  rural  needs,  to  find 
hardly  one  in  fifty  among  them  who  believes  that  his  life 
will  count  for  much  in  the  country  pastorate,  or  that  he 
can  go  there  without  his  own  comrades  looking  down  upon 
him  as  inefficient!  Something  is  wrong  when  such  things 
can  be.  It  cries  out  against  the  religious  body  whose 
vision  is  so  obliviously  devoted  to  breadth  that  it  cannot 
see  the  bigness  of  the  plain  and  simple  things  which  mul- 
tiply the  meaning  of  life.  Our  theological  seminaries  have 
done  for  Southern  Baptists  a  great  service,  and  they  will 
do  a  greater.  We  should  have  in  them  twice  the  students 
now  there,  and  we  shall  need  to  have  hundreds  of  addi- 
tional workers  training  in  the  Baptist  Bible  Institute  in 
New  Orleans.  But,  in  the  name  of  the  eighty  percent  of 
our  Southern  Baptists  in  the  rural  churches,  the  churches 
that  have  made  possible  the  great  seminaries  and  supplied 
the  denomination  with  its  leaders — in  the  name  of  this 
great  mass  of  God's  people,  voiceless  always  in  our  denom- 
inational counsels,  I  declare  that  there  must  be  in  our  the- 
ological seminaries  a  re-discovery  of  the  country  church. 
These  institutions  ought  to  send  a  large  number  of  their 
brighest  and  best  back  to  the  country  to  tackle  the  great 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  199 

unsolved  rural  church  problem.  They  will  go,  if  they  are 
led  to  see  it  is  a  man's  job,  and  many  will  see  it,  if  their 
teachers  in  their  hearts  believe  it.  City  pulpit  tasks  are 
difficult  and  need  strong  men,  but,  seeing  that  they  have 
all  the  while  gotten  the  lion's  share  of  our  trained  and 
well  equipped  men,  not  a  few  of  our  best  ought  to  go 
to  the  country  now,  even  if  the  complacent  city  church 
does  occasionally  suffer  by  not  getting  all  of  "the  best" 
Frnits  of  one  Seminary  address.  Rev.  Greene  Clay 
Smith,  D.  D.,  made  an  address  at  the  Seminary  in  Louis- 
ville, in  the  early  eighties.  In  simple,  conversational  style 
Dr.  Smith  earnestly  and  forcefully  set  forth  the  call  of 
the  small  village  and  country  churches,  especially  those  of 
the  mountains  of  Kentucky.  It  was  a  call  for  men  who 
were  willing  to  make  themselves  of  no  reputation,  to  pass 
by  the  more  desirable  places,  which  would  be  sought  after, 
and  to  pull  off  their  coats  and  go  to  work.  It  was  an 
impressive  appeal  for  men  who  would  be  willing  to  live 
the  simple  life  and  to  serve  in  difficult  fields,  where  study 
gowns,  slippered  feet  and  polished  fenders  would  be  un- 
known. Many  of  the  students  Hstened  with  throbbing 
hearts  to  his  recital  of  prevailing  conditions  of  need  in 
wide  sections  of  the  South.  A  short  time  afterwards.  Dr. 
John  N.  Prestridge,  then  a  student,  now  among  the  im- 
mortal, hung  on  the  wall  before  Dr.  Broadus'  class  in 
homiletics  a  hand-drawn  map  of  the  mountain  section  of 
Alabama,  and  made  a  heart-moving  appeal  for  laborers 
both  there  and  in  the  mountains  of  Kentucky,  especially 
about  Williamsburg.  There  soon  developed  a  sort  of 
rivalry  among  the  students  to  magnify  the  attractions  of 
the  small  fields  with  great  hardships.  Rev.  D.  W.  Key,  D.  D., 
now  a  highly  honored  and  useful  Georgia  pastor,  was  one 


200  THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  those  students.  It  led  him  to  accept  an  inconspicuous 
mission  pastorate  under  Secretary  R.  H.  Griffith  in  South 
CaroHna,  and  to  the  development  of  a  breadth  of  sym- 
pathy and  understanding  with  our  churches  which  has  led 
the  denomination  to  put  many  responsibilities  and  honors 
upon  him,  including  the  presidency  for  years  of  the  South 
Carolina  Baptist  Convention.  Perhaps  there  is  not  a  greater 
single  need  in  our  denominational  leadership  than  an 
understanding  comprehension  of  the  problems  of  our  coun- 
try churches.  Lack  of  it  is  making  many  a  program, 
wrought  out  by  able  men,  visionary  and  impracticable. 
Such  understanding  comes  only  from  experience.  On  this 
account,  and  from  the  greater  consideration  of  the  needs 
and  worth  of  the  work,  there  should  be  many  a  lecture  in 
our  seminaries  and  colleges  like  that  which  Dr.  Smith  de- 
livered in  the  Louisville  school  of  the  prophets,  many  years 
ago. 

The  denominatioii.  It  should  be  said,  even  in  so  brief 
a  treatment  as  this  chapter,  that  the  denomination  itself 
needs  to  re-appraise  the  significance  of  the  country  church 
and  rural  pastors.  We  have  loved  the  country  church,  but 
we  have  not  respected  its  worth  or  understood  its  value. 
In  our  Conventions  the  rural  preacher  is  seldom  placed  on 
committees  or  denominational  boards  or  otherwise  hon- 
ored, and  the  little  country  church,  which  in  the  aggregate 
is  the  mother  of  all  the  brave  ensemble  of  our  great  days 
of  the  feast,  abides  forgotten  in  a  hazy  perspective.  It  is 
not  to  plead  that  the  possible  sensitiveness  of  rural  men 
should  lead  us  to  celebrate  them.  That  is  entirely  beside 
the  point.  They  show  less  evidence  of  caring  for  promi- 
nence than  any  other  class  among  us.  It  is  a  question  of 
statesmanship  and  of  self-respect   through   respecting  the 


SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE  201 

worth  of  the  rural  sources  from  which  we  came.  It  is  a 
question  of  creating  and  maintaining  a  denominational 
ideal  to  the  effect  that  country  people  and  country  churches 
count  along  with  our  best.  No  less  attitude  will  encourage 
our  preachers  to  endure  the  hardness  that  many  will  need 
to  endure,  if  they  are  again  to  bring  the  country  church 
into  its  own.  How  many  speeches  has  the  reader  heard  at 
one  of  our  Conventions  on  rural  problems  and  country 
needs?  I  dare  say,  very  few;  perhaps  none.  But  many 
great  addresses  by  gifted  men  sway  those  bodies  on  many 
other  great  tasks.  From  the  country  church  itself,  which 
has  accepted  the  be-littling  estimate  of  the  denomination 
and  is  surprised  when  a  preacher  with  a  broad  reputation 
consents  to  become  its  pastor,  to  the  great  Conventions  of 
the  denomination,  there  is  urgent  need  of  a  re-discovery  of 
the  value  and  needs  of  rural  life  and  the  rural  church. 
Saving  what  we  have.  The  best  thought  of  our  Baptist 
people  everyhere  accepts  the  truth  of  Dr.  William  E. 
Hatcher's  words,  when  he  said:  "It  is  at  least  as  im- 
portant to  save  what  we  have  as  it  is  to  save  that  which 
is  lost."  It  is  a  question  of  an  aroused  denomination  and 
an  aroused  leadership,  determined  to  do  something  to  help, 
rather  than  our  mental  acceptance  of  a  principle.  When 
we  believe  in  our  hearts  that  something  must  be  done  to 
carry  out  the  nurturing  commands  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  in  terms  of  our  rural  church  needs,  we  shall  be- 
gin to  do  something  large  and  worthy.  God  speed  that 
day!  Attention  has  been  called  that  Southern  Baptists 
have,  during  the  last  twenty  years,  lost  thirty-seven  per- 
cent of  as  many  as  they  have  baptized,  to  the  world  and 
to  false  faiths.  The  Southern  rural  field  in  many  sections 
is  rich  proselyting  ground  for  false  faiths.    Why?    Because 


202        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Baptists  and  Methodists,  who  had  these  people,  neglected 
them.  Most  of  the  once-a-month  churches  give  little  to 
support  missions  or  benevolence.  Why?  Because  they 
have  not  been  taught,  and  the  denomination  has  silently 
acquiesced  in  a  system  which  did  not  provide  adequate 
teaching  and  could  not  do  so,  while  some  of  our  preachers 
and  leaders  have  sometimes  held  these  churches  up  for 
special  criticism.  May  the  Lord  quicken  Southern  Bap- 
tists with  purpose  and  faith  to  undertake  the  great  task 
of  laboring  more  adequately  to  save  what  they  already 
have.  Baptists  stand  for  great  principles  which  the  nation 
and  American  Christianity  need.  But  if  they  should  ac- 
quiesce in  a  pioneer  system  of  denominational  effort,  which 
evangelizes  great  masses  while  it  provides  no  adequate  in- 
struction  for  a  large  proportion  of  those  they  have  evan- 
gelized. Baptists  would  place  themselves  athwart  the  pur- 
pose of  God  and  the  manifest  path  of  progress  in  the 
twentieth  century.  We  cannot  afford  to  do  it  We  must 
not  do  it  Through  Enlistment  work  and  in  every  other 
fit  way  we  must  grapple  seriously  with  the  great  and  blessed 
task  of  saving  what  we  have. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  IX. 

1.  Give  a  survey  of  the  amount  of  religious  instruction  received 
by  the  average  church  member  in  the  South,  and  contrast  it 
with  the  dynamic  material  environment. 

2.  Show  that  the  churches  are  still  following  a  pioneer  spiritual 
program,  while  material  life  is  following  that  of  greatly  in- 
tensified activities. 

3.  Show  the  danger  of  a  doctrinal  debacle  which  grows  out  of 
the  lack  of  teaching  among  our  church  members. 

4.  Indicate  what  the  preachers  and  churches  may  do  to  im- 
prove the  situation. 

5.  What  of  an  educated  ministry  and  better  pastoral  support? 

6.  What  ought  the  Christian  colleges  and  seminaries  to  do? 
What  re-appraisement  is  needed? 

7.  Are  Baptists  aroused  as  to  the  importance  of  saving  what 
they  have? 


CHAPTER  X. 

CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH. 

Is  this  a  Christian  nation?  An  interesting  and  edifying 
debate  could  be  conducted  on  whether  or  not  America  is 
a  Christian  nation.  On  the  affirmative  side  could  be 
ranged  the  evident  religious  intent  of  many  of  the  early 
settlers;  the  testimony  of  the  organic  law  of  many  of 
the  Colonies;  the  constitutional  guarantees  of  religious 
and  civil  liberty;  the  rapid  growth  of  evangelical  religious 
bodies;  the  present  great  strength  of  these  bodies;  the 
immense  sums  given  annually  to  benevolent  and  uplift  ac- 
tivities and  Christian  education;  the  altruistic  attitude  of 
our  government  in  connection  with  the  Boxer  troubles  in 
China,  and  in  Cuba,  the  Phillippines,  and  Mexico.  Much 
could  be  made  of  the  high  stand  our  country  has  taken  in 
connection  with  the  present  World  War.  Justice  Brewer 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  could  be  quoted,  who 
in  a  volume  on  the  subject,  argues  that  America  is  a  Chris- 
tian nation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  negative  of  the  propo- 
sition would  not  lack  for  strong  arguments.  Waiving  aside 
the  question  whether  the  Constitution  of  our  country  and 
certain  of  the  founders  ever  intended  to  identify  this  nation 
with  the  Christian  religion,  the  defenders  of  the  negative 
could  show  that  the  Christianization  of  the  country  at  no 
time  ever  went  to  the  extent  of  the  open  espousal  of  re- 
ligious faith  by  a  majority  of  the  people.  They  could  bring 
from  the  closet  skeletons  of  civic  and  national  failure  in 
demonstration  that  the  country  was  not  wedded  to  that 
righteousness  which  exalteth  a  nation. 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  205 

The  negative  ade.  In  detail  they  could  raise  some  most 
embarrassing  questions  about  our  use  of  wealth,  our  city 
slums,  our  municipal  corruption,  our  political  sins,  our 
failure  rightly  to  support  ministers,  teachers  and  other  up- 
lift workers,  while  we  heap  wealth  on  those  who  can  amuse 
us  and  contribute  to  our  pleasure.  Against  the  millions 
spent  for  missions,  they  could  place  the  scores  of  millions 
spent  for  single  items  of  useless  indulgence.  Against  the 
highly  endowed  Christian  institutions,  they  could  point  to  the 
trail  of  the  serpent  of  rationalism  in  some  of  these,  making 
foul  the  classic  shades  by  the  slime  of  doubts  and  negations 
about  the  crucified  Christ.  They  could  show  that  not  only 
is  more  than  half  of  the  nation  without  religious  profession, 
but  one  of  the  largest  of  the  religious  bodies  is  by  prin- 
ciple and  long  practice  set  against  the  ideals  of  American 
religious  Uberty,  and  is  doing  all  it  can  to  destroy  separa- 
tion between  Church  and  State.  It  could  show  that  evan- 
gelical religion  has  spent  nearly  all  its  effort  on  saving 
souls,  but  so  little  on  saving  lives  that  the  ratio  of  toddling 
babes  in  Christ  to  nurtured  and  serving  disciples  of  the 
Master,  is  only  as  one  to  ten,  and  that  many  of  these  babes 
fall  into  destructive  snares  and  many  into  false  faiths, 
which  are  becoming  our  national  reproach,  and  a  severe 
rebuke  to  the  faithfulness  of  the  Christian  bodies. 

The  dedsion  of  the  judges.  Perhaps  the  judges  of  the 
debate  would  say  something  like  this:  The  affirmative  ar- 
guments prove  that  America  has  more  nearly  approximated 
the  Christian  ideal  than  other  nations  have  done.  But  the 
negative  has  demonstrated  that,  in  a  country  where  for 
the  first  time  in  history  soul  liberty  and  civil  liberty  have 
together  had  an  opportunity  to  show  what  they  could  do, 
Christianity  has   failed  to  dominate  great  and  increasing 


206        THE  CALL  OP  THE  SOUTH 

sections  of  the  national  life.  It  has  shown  that  American 
Christianity  leads  the  world  in  pioneering,  but  stands  per- 
plexed and  confused  before  the  twentieth  century  necessity 
of  so  nurturing  the  new  life  that  it  shall  be  able  to  master 
an  age  of  material  prosperity  and  secular  education.  The 
judges  decline  to  decide  between  the  contestant  debaters, 
on  the  ground  that  the  terms  of  the  question  controverted 
do  not  set  forth  with  clearness  what  is  meant  by  a  Christian 
nation.  If  the  purposes  of  the  early  colonists,  and  the 
attainments  of  the  nation  compared  with  others,  were  the 
gauge,  we  would  declare  for  the  affirmative.  But  if  the 
standards  of  Him  who  is  the  founder  and  substance  of 
Christianity  are  the  measure,  the  negative  has  won  easily. 
The  judges  take  the  opportunity  to  say  that  past  good  will 
not  suffice.  However  gladly  we  may  point  to  the  acts  of 
our  country  in  the  past  as  an  evidence  of  our  faith,  the 
only  ground  upon  which  we  may  safely  claim  that  this  is 
a  Christian  nation  is  the  effective  operation  and  constant 
re-creation  of  Christian  principles  in  this  country  now. 

God's  proyidential  purpose  in  America.  Underlying  each 
step  in  such  reasoning  as  the  above  is  the  suggestion  that 
God's  hand  has  been  in  the  making  of  America,  with  the 
providential  purpose  that  his  people  might  here  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances  take  their  last  stand  to  labor 
for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  Dr.  J.  F.  Love,  of  Rich- 
mond. Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Mission 
Board,  is  the  author  of  a  book,  "The  Saving  of  Our  Na- 
tion," in  which  this  is  the  basal  argument  through  two 
hundred  and  forty  well  written  pages.  The  closing  sentence 
of  the  book  in  epitome  sets  forth  the  author's  conclusions, 
in  these  words :  "The  Home  Mission  contest  is  for  America, 
and  the  decision  will  determine  the  future  of  evangelical 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  207 

religion,  political  democracy,  and  the  destiny  of  the  world." 
In  his  argument,  leading  up  to  this  conclusion.  Dr.  Love 
says:  "The  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  the  distinctive  capacity 
for  introducing  its  policies,  its  civilizations,  its  ideals,  and 
its  institutions  among  other  peoples.  There  is  not  a  col- 
ored race  in  the  world  which  could  evangelize  a  white  race. 
*  *  *  It  is  God's  will  that  in  the  day  of  Anglo-Saxon 
power  the  testimony,  the  fsune,  the  influence  of  the  race 
shall  be  for  righteousness  and  the  founding  of  his  King- 
dom in  the  world.  Unless  the  Anglo-Saxons  themselves 
throw  away  their  opportunity,  America  is  to  be  the  seat 
of  empire  for  this  race."  Dr.  S.  L.  Morris,  of  Adanta, 
Secretary  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Home  Mission 
Board,  says  in  his  book,  "The  Task  that  Challenges:" 
"The  effort  for  the  evangelization  of  almost  any  other 
nation  is  largely  local,  terminating  with  itself.  The  Chris- 
tianizing of  America  is  cosmopolitan  in  its  scope.  The 
spiritual  conquest  of  America  looms  larger  than  any  other 
task  of  the  Church."  Alexander  Hamilton  declared:  "It 
is  America's  to  be  the  grave  in  which  the  hopes  of  the 
world  shall  be  entombed,  or  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  that 
pilots  the  race  onward."  After  making  a  world  tour  for 
the  study  of  Foreign  Missions,  Mr.  William  T.  Ellis  recently 
came  home  and  wrote:  "The  entire  Christianization  of 
North  America  is  the  greatest  single  enterprise  confronting 
the  churches  of  the  whole  world."  It  would  be  easy  to 
multiply  such  quotations,  but  the  above  are  sufficient  to 
indicate  that  Christian  statesmanship  accepts  as  a  fact  the 
contention  that  God  has  prepared  America  for  the  task  of 
world-saving,  and  that  the  entire  success  of  Christian  mis- 
sions in  America  has  a  strategic  value  to  which  no  success 
on  any  other  field  is  comparable. 


208        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

The  place  of  die  Sonth.  If  America's  Christianization 
is  necessary  for  the  world's  salvation,  the  South 's  Christian- 
ization is  strategic  in  the  work  of  saving  America.  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood  and  evangelical  faith  have  in  the  South 
a  far  fuller  opportunity  than  elsewhere  in  America.  With- 
out any  purpose  of  invidious  comparison  with  other  blood- 
strains  in  the  American  life,  the  Anglo-Saxon's  evangelical 
faith,  his  genius  for  political  liberty,  and  for  impressing 
other  races  with  his  ideals,  mark  him  for  special  considera- 
tion and  responsibilities.  Other  sections  of  America  have 
in  a  measure  lost  whatever  there  is  of  advantage  in  this 
unmixed  Anglo-Saxon  blood.  With  it  they  have  lost  the 
unhindered  dominance  of  the  Anglo-Saxon's  faith.  Ro- 
manism has  flooded  their  cities,  along  with  the  Romanized 
immigrant,  and  to  the  extent  that  priestcraft  could  ac- 
complish it,  the  tradition  of  religious  and  political  democ- 
racy has  lost  its  meaning  and  power.  New  England  was 
influential  in  establishing  American  ideals.  In  politics, 
literature  and  religion  it  won  fame  and  prestige.  From 
New  England  went  out  the  impulse  of  the  modern  revival 
in  Foreign  Missions.  Behold  New  England  now!  The 
section  is  flooded  with  Roman  Catholics;  the  home  of  the 
Puritan  scarcely  recognizes  itself.  Not  only  has  a  strange 
religion  established  itself  with  pomp  and  ceremony;  it  has 
invaded  and  despoiled  the  old  patriotism  and  the  old  cul- 
ture and  political  ideals,  and  is  to-day  subjecting  them  to 
the  arrogant  and  autocratic  traditions  of  an  un-American 
hierarchy.  Influential  also  toward  weakening  the  Ameri- 
can democratic  tradition  have  been  the  vast  aggregations 
of  wealth  and  the  equally  great  industrial  plants,  which 
have  enriched  the  few  and  kept  the  many  in  comparative 
dependence.     The  later  coming  in  the  South  of  industrial 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  209 

development,  and  the  fact  that  it  must  here  make  its  way 
and  form  its  social  readjustments  among  Americans  and 
not  among  European  peasants,  suggests  a  hope  that  South- 
ern capital  will  learn  from  the  experiences  of  other  sections, 
and  that  the  native  American  employees  shall  aid  in  mak- 
ing the  instruction  effective. 

The  North  looks  to  as.  There  are  deep-thinking  North- 
ern men  who  are  watching  the  South  with  hope,  won- 
dering if  we  shall  rise  to  our  God-given  opportunity  in  the 
nation.  They  desire  to  know  if  our  unmixed  Anglo-Saxon 
blood,  our  unvexed  Americanism  and  evangelical  faith,  will 
so  equip  the  South  with  spiritual  comprehension  and  mo- 
tive that  it  shall  not  only  be  able  to  save  itself,  but  have  a 
blessed  overflow  to  help  the  North  and  the  West  in  their 
struggle  against  new  and  strange  forces,  which  are  seeking 
to  choke  America's  political  and  religious  testimony  to  a 
hungry  and  weary  world.  Looking  upon  the  South's  unique 
opportunity.  Dr.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis  exclaimed:  "Here 
in  the  South,  where  we  find  the  purest  standards  of  po- 
litical democracy,  and  the  most  chivalrous  types  of  homes, 
are  the  greatest  opportunities  for  manufacturing  a  race  of 
great-souled  men  to  govern  a  greater  America  of  tomor- 
row." Already  his  words  have  had  a  verification  in  the 
large  participation  of  Southern  men  in  national  leadership, 
a  leadership  of  a  quality  of  which  the  South  may  fitly  be 
proud.  May  the  South's  sources  never  decline  for  produc- 
ing such  leadership.  Its  maintenance  is  in  the  last  analysis 
a  question  of  missions,  because  it  is  a  question  of  the 
spiritual  quality  of  the  manhood  our  section  shall  produce. 

Our  new  internationalism.  Perhaps  no  nation  in  history 
was  so  rapidly  awakened  from  a  grateful  sense  of  isolation 
from  world  movements  and  politics  as  America.  The  fancied 


210        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

security  has  been  shattered  of  our  separation  by  great 
seas  from  the  European  centers  of  world  politics.  Not 
only  has  our  awakening  been  sudden  to  the  point  of  rude- 
ness. Not  only  is  our  aloofness  gone.  We  have  become  the 
cynosure  of  the  eyes  of  all  peoples.  They  desire  to  know 
if  our  democracy  with  its  human  rights,  and  our  religion 
with  its  holy  faith  and  freedom,  have  demonstrated  their 
practicability  as  cures  for  the  burdens  and  disappointed 
hopes  of  the  struggling  nations.  The  processes  of  inter- 
communication, through  which  the  American  tradition  of 
isolation  has  crumbled,  have  been  rapid  but  quiet.  We  were 
slow  to  comprehend  their  significance.  But  the  present 
World  War  has  startled  every  American  into  the  certain 
knowledge  that  the  days  of  our  nation's  protected  adoles- 
cence have  gone.  It  has  been  thrust  into  the  prominence 
of  one  of  the  lustiest  of  the  family  of  nations,  with  all  the 
tremendous  obligations  and  responsibilities  of  this  unac- 
customed relation.  On  his  return  from  his  visit  to  Europe 
and  Africa,  Mr.  Roosevelt  said  that  he  found  the  peoples 
of  other  lands  looking  to  America  for  leadership  in  those 
movements  which  make  for  the  larger  emancipation  of 
humanity.  He  regretfully  added  that  he  also  found  a  grow- 
ing disappointment  among  the  people  that  their  expecta- 
tions are  being  so  imperfectly  realized.  If  America  in  her 
commercial  and  civic  life  and  social  relations  really  prac- 
ticed the  Christianity  her  missionaries  preach,  and  which 
our  traditions  of  human  rights  and  opportunity  lead  the 
oppressed  of  other  lands  to  expedt  of  us,  what  a  power  our 
nation  would  be  in  bringing  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  to 
earth! 

Oar  impact  on  other  nations  not  Christian.     But  the 
samples  of  Christianity  which  American  contact  with  the 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  211 

nations  have  sent  abroad  have  not  usually  confirmed  the 
message  of  our  missionaries  in  those  lands.  America  has 
been  singularly  free  from  those  greedy  aggressions  which 
have  crippled  the  influence  in  heathen  lands  of  some  other 
so-called  Christian  nations.  The  confidence  and  apprecia- 
tion which  have  been  elicited  by  these  manifestations  of 
national  unselfishness  and  justice,  have  redounded  to  our 
credit  and  influence  in  a  degree  that  suggests  what  rich 
and  blessed  fruits  we  might  expect  if  the  business  men  and 
officials  and  globe-trotting  travelers  from  this  country  did 
not  so  often  bewilder  the  peoples  to  whom  we  send  mis- 
sionaries by  giving  the  lie  to  the  gospel  of  the  missionaries 
and  to  the  good  repute  our  international  relations  have  won 
for  us.  Lord  Bryce,  an  exceptionally  well  informed  student 
of  racial  relations,  speaks  thus  of  this  handicap  to  the 
spread  of  Christianity  in  the  non-Christian  nations.  "Chris- 
tianity has  often  come  to  them  as  a  religion  professed  by 
adventurers  who,  bearing  the  Christian  name,  have  de- 
spoiled or  tricked  them  out  of  their  lands,  who  have  ex- 
ploited their  mines,  who  have  ruined  them  by  strong  drink, 
who  have  treated  them  with  roughness  and  with  scorn,  and 
sometimes  with  barbarity.  Such  men  are  the  foul  scum 
upon  the  advancing  wave  of  civilization,  and  they  undo 
and  unteach  by  their  lives  what  Christianity  is  teaching  by 
its  precepts."  Mr.  John  R.  Mott,  commenting  on  this  sub- 
ject in  his  book,  "The  Present  World  Situation,"  says: 
"The  large  number  of  illegitimate  children  in  German 
Africa  made  necessary  recent  startling  action  in  the  Reich- 
stag of  Germany.  What  an  occasion  for  humiliating  re- 
flection is  the  fact  that  some  of  the  chiefs  on  the  Lower 
Congo  forbid  the  women  and  girls  of  their  towns  to  go  to 
the  railroad  towns  even  to  trade  because  they  recognize 


212        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

these  centers  are  the  sources  of  unnamable  evils."  Mr. 
Mott  and  other  observers  testiJFy  that  in  mining  and  con- 
struction camps  and  oil  fields  in  Asia  and  Africa,  where 
American  and  European  men  are  concentrated,  the  immoral 
conditions  are  almost  unbelievable.  Nor  have  our  soldiers 
and  sailors  always  behaved  in  a  way  to  reflect  credit  on 
the  country  they  represent,  when  in  the  cities  of  these  un- 
christian lands.  In  addition  to  teaching  the  heathen  new 
measures  of  lustful  abandon,  the  so-called  Christian  coun- 
tries have  distilled  for  them  the  poison  of  materialism  and 
sent  it  along.  Mr.  Mott  declares  that  in  nearly  every 
Oriental  city  may  be  found  the  works  of  such  men  as 
Nietzche,  Spenser,  Huxley,  Haeckel,  Ingersoll  and  Voltaire. 
Oar  visitors  from  other  lands.  Nor  does  the  pagan  visitor 
to  America  always  find  here  that  which  confirms  the  mes- 
sage of  the  missionary  at  the  front.  In  the  new  interna- 
tionalism the  ends  of  the  earth  are  sending  their  people  to 
us,  while  ours  are  going  to  them.  Their  people,  as  well 
as  ours,  are  using  the  ships  and  trains  and  reading  the  press 
despatches  which  like  great  shuttles  are  weaving  the  nations 
into  a  complex  pattern,  the  finished  fashion  of  which  does 
not  yet  appear.  We  have  long  sent  missionaries  of  Christ; 
they  are  beginning  to  send  missionaries  of  Buddha  and 
Confucius.  We  have  sent  business  men;  they  are  sending 
great  masses  of  immigrant  labor.  We  have  sent  our  manu- 
factured products;  they  send  their  young  men  to  study  in 
our  schools.  About  thirty  percent  of  the  immigrants  be- 
come emigrants,  non-commissioned  evangels  of  the  econ- 
omic, political  and  spiritual  gospel  of  America.  Through 
the  mails  the  rest  of  them  are  spreading  to  the  corners  of 
the  earth  their  observations  on  life  in  America.  All  these 
will  form  and  express  their  own  judgment  of  what  they 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  213 

find  in  America.  If  they  are  unkindly  or  unfairly  treated, 
they  will  mark  down  the  fact  as  evidence  against  America 
being  the  kind  of  country  the  gospel  of  the  missionary  led 
them  to  expect.  When  they  see  for  themselves  the  failure 
of  Christianity  to  dominate  whole  zones  of  life — in  com- 
mercial, industrial,  social  and  political  practice — ^we  need 
not  be  surprised  if  they  ask:  "If  Christianity  cannot  drive 
out  these  devils  in  the  land  where  it  is  said  to  have  had 
its  best  chance,  why  should  we  believe  in  it?" 

The  Mikado  and  Christianity.  Twenty  years  ago,  the 
Mikado  of  Japan  publicly  stated  his  wiUingness  to  issue  a 
decree  which  would  make  Christianity  the  state  religion  of 
his  kingdom.  He  told  his  council  that  he  had  observed 
that  the  life  and  work  of  the  Christian  missionaries  had 
been  more  helpful  to  Japan  than  any  other  religion  pro- 
pagated in  his  empire.  Some  of  his  councilors  suggested 
that,  before  the  decree  should  be  made,  a  deputation  be 
sent  to  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  to  find  whether 
the  doctrines  of  the  missionaries  were  adopted  and  prac- 
ticed in  those  two  countries.  The  deputation  made  a  sur- 
vey of  Canada,  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  In 
courts  of  law  they  found  justice  often  defeated.  In  marts 
of  trade  and  industry  they  saw  reputed  Christian  men  de- 
stroying each  other  in  competitive  business.  They  caught 
the  flavor  of  the  stench  of  American  municipal  government. 
They  returned  to  Japan  and  reported  that,  "while  it  is  true 
the  life  of  the  Christian  missionary  among  us  is  the  purest 
of  any  of  the  advocates  of  religion  in  Japan,  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity  taught  by  them  are  right  and  most 
helpful  to  our  citizens,  the  people  of  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  do  not  believe  and  practice  the  doctrines 
taught  us  by  their  Christian  missionaries."    The  edict  was 


214        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

not  issued.  While  the  decree  could  not  have  made  Japan 
really  Christian,  it  would  have  opened  the  doors  of  40,- 
000,000  Japanese  to  Christian  teachers  and  preachers. 
Their  deliberate  refusal  to  adopt  Christianity,  after  inspect- 
ing American  and  English  life,  is  a  severe  arraignment  of 
the  effectiveness  of  our  Christian  teachings  in  our  own 
country. 

Ciyilization  does  not  Ckristiaiuze.  In  considering  the 
cruciality  of  a  Christian  homeland  in  world-saving,  we 
should  understand  that  civilization  is  not  Christianity  and 
does  not  Christianize.  Civilization  has  its  boons  for  man- 
kind, but  they  have  been  greatly  over-estimated.  Sepa- 
rated from  Christian  faith,  every  one  of  them  details  a  de- 
stroying poison.  Beauty  and  poetry  and  the  arts  have 
added  to  the  soul's  eyesight  and  the  significance  of  life. 
But,  committed  to  unregenerated  men,  they  have  been 
compelled  to  minister  to  sensuousness,  selfishness  and  es- 
sential ugliness,  and  have  accomplished  their  own  downfall. 
Science  and  inventions  have  performed  their  wonders,  but 
divorced  from  Christianity,  they  mock  and  betray  the  civ- 
ilization which  makes  of  them  a  god.  Education  has  in- 
creased knowledge  and  power,  but  the  world  is  even  now 
being  treated  to  the  spectacle  of  a  nation  with  great  educa- 
tional institutions  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of  civilization, 
which  has  in  the  most  enlightened  age  of  the  world  reverted 
to  barbarism.  Will  the  horror  of  Germany's  utter  moral 
collapse  in  the  midst  of  all  her  boasted  civilization,  so 
rebuke  the  folly  of  men  in  our  own  nation  that  they  shall 
worship  God  and  not  their  own  inventions?  So  far  from 
civilization  Christianizing,  it  contains  in  itself  the  seeds 
of  its  own  destruction.  Divorced  from  Christian  faith,  its 
arrogant  schemes  of  godless  ambition  and  of  cruelty  far 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  215 

outstrip  any  which  the  naked  barbarians  of  the  forests  could 
even  conceive.  Civilization  does  not  even  civilize.  Only 
Christianity  can  do  that.  The  Indian  graduate  of  Ameri- 
can government  schools  often  returns  to  the  blanket  and 
the  wild  and  debasing  orgies  of  tribal  superstition.  But  the 
Christian  convert  in  the  mission  churches  is  a  changed  man, 
with  a  new  countenance;  Christianity  has  civilized  him. 
Dr.  James  Stewart,  who  had  fine  opportunities  to  study  the 
effect  of  the  contact  of  civilized  nations  with  Africa,  de- 
clares: "I  have  never  seen  a  savage  whom  civilization 
without  Christianity  had  succeeded  in  civilizing."  We  shall 
never  Christianize  the  heathen  by  selling  them  sewing  ma- 
chines and  graphophones,  nor  the  immigrant  by  letting  him 
make  money  and  ride  on  Pullman  cars.  It  takes  Christ 
the  Saviour  to  make  people  Christian,  or  even  to  civilize 
them.  Left  to  itself,  civilization  is  such  a  traitor,  so  full 
of  ingratitude,  such  a  renegade,  that  it  is  ever  ready  to 
turn  its  cowardly  back  on  the  Christ  who  has  made  pos- 
sible its  comforts,  its  fuller  pleasures  and  richer  enjoyments, 
and  boastfully  proclaim  its  scientific  attainments  and  en- 
vironmental improvements  as  its  god  and  religion.  More 
reality  in  our  Christian  faith  alone  can  save  our  civiliza- 
tion, or  civilize  and  save  the  nations  that  lie  in  darkness. 
The  crucial  point  in  the  South's  ability  to  help  America 
and  the  sin-burdened  world  is  the  genuineness  of  its  faith 
in  the  lowly  Nazarene. 

Helping  by  having.  Joseph  E.  McAfee,  in  "Missions 
Striking  Home,"  shows  how  German  educational  ideals 
came  to  bulk  so  large  in  America.  The  Germans  had  what 
American  scholars  (may  they  revise  their  opinion!)  re- 
garded as  the  best  in  education.  Therefore  our  young  men, 
who  elected  to  pursue  learning  to  its  degree-giving  limits. 


216        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

flocked  to  Germany  tor  post-graduate  work.  Germany  in- 
fluenced us  by  having  what  we  considered  the  best.  Cecil 
Rhodes,  the  South  African  milHonaire,  conceived  a  desire 
to  spread  English  ideals  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
To  accomplish  it,  he  established  the  Rhodes  scholarships 
at  Oxford.  There,  for  generations  to  conie,  young  men 
who  are  likely  to  exert  more  than  ordinary  influence  in  life, 
are  to  drink  in  learning  and  the  English  way  of  looking  at 
life.  Rhodes'  idea  was  to  Anglicize  the  world  by  bringing 
a  promising  section  of  it  under  the  influence  of  what  Eng- 
land has  to  give.  On  the  same  principle,  the  world  is  being 
Americanized  in  no  small  part  through  the  thousands  of 
students  from  other  lands  now  studying  in  American  col- 
leges and  universities.  There  are  said  to  be  1 ,200  Japanese 
students  now  in  American  institutions.  Within  a  decade 
Chinese  students  in  this  country  have  increased  from  a  few 
score  to  more  than  1,000.  John  R.  Mott,  who  is  authority 
for  the  above  figures,  declares  that  there  are  also  more 
than  1,500  Latin-American  students  now  in  this  country. 
These  foreign  students,  when  they  return  to  their  own  lands, 
will  wield  a  tremendous  influence.  How  much  it  would 
mean  if  the  student  bodies  in  the  institutions  they  attend 
really  voiced  in  their  life  the  spirit  and  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  present  Chinese  Ambassador  at  Washington, 
Dr.  Wellington  Woo,  is  only  twenty-nine  years  of  age  and 
is  a  graduate  of  Columbia  University  of  New  York.  If 
we,  in  our  college  life  and  in  our  business  and  civic  life, 
show  forth  the  spirit  and  fruits  of  Christian  faith,  we  shall 
thereby  reach  the  whole  world  with  our  gospel.  This  is 
no  mere  logic  of  an  advocate.  A  whole-hearted,  effective 
Home  Mission  program,  is  an  incalculable  aid  to  Foreign 
Mission  effort,  and  an  absolutely  essential  aid.     If  we  do 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  217 

not  hold  the  homeland  for  Christ,  what  we  are  will  speak 
too  loud  to  allow  the  great  pagan  masses  to  hear  what  our 
missionaries  say. 

Testimony  of  men  who  know.  In  every  day  our  foreign 
missionaries  have  urged  the  cruciality  of  a  triumphant  mis- 
sion program  in  our  own  country  as  essential  to  the  ef- 
fectiveness of  Foreign  Mission  effort.  The  words  of  Austin 
Phelps  should  not  be  forgotten.  He  said:  "If  I  were  a 
missionary  in  Canton,  China,  my  first  prayer  every  morning 
would  be  for  the  success  of  American  Home  Missions,  for 
the  sake  of  Canton,  China."  One  of  the  ablest  and  most 
esteemed  missionaries  of  our  own  Foreign  Mission  Board 
is  Dr.  Everett  Gill,  of  Rome,  Italy.  Dr.  Gill  writes:  "There 
is  no  room  for  argument  and  there  should  be  no  need  for 
appeal.  Unless  we  Christianize  America  with  the  help  of 
Home  Missions  and  furnish  the  financial,  moral  and  spiritual 
munitions,  the  work  of  Foreign  Missions  is  doomed.  If  the 
men  in  khaki  at  the  front  are  dependent  on  the  men  in 
overalls  at  home,  equally,  if  not  more  so,  the  Foreign  Mis- 
sion enterprise  is  dependent  on  Home  Missions."  Dr.  F. 
B.  Meyer,  of  London,  was  approached  by  Mr.  Richard  H. 
Edmonds  of  Baltimore,  with  the  question:  "Dr.  Meyer, 
you  have  just  traveled  around  the  world  studying  Foreign 
Missions;  tell  me  what  in  your  view  is  the  greatest  mission 
field  in  the  world."  Quick  as  a  flash  came  the  answer: 
"The  United  States,  because  here  you  have  all  nationalities 
of  the  world  centered." 

We  must  Christianize  the  SoatL  Each  paragraph  in  this 
chapter,  and,  indeed,  each  chapter  in  the  book,  has  been 
intended  as  a  plea  that  we  must  Christianize  our  own  coun- 
try. For  Southern  Baptists  that  means  that  we  must  Chris- 
tianize the  South,  the  section  of  the  nation  in  which  we 


218       THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

are  responsible  for  the  saving  effect  of  the  gospel  mes- 
sage. It  is  supremely  important  that  this  should  be  done. 
For  the  South's  sake  and  America's  sake,  we  must  do  it. 
A  horrible  example  now  paints  lurid  the  sky  of  the  world's 
vision,  showing  that  a  civilization  which  rejects  God  may 
be  more  miserable  and  bring  a  hundred-fold  more  misery 
in  the  world  than  naked  barbarism.  For  the  world's  sake 
we  must  do  it.  Neither  with  carnal  nor  spiritual  weapons 
can  we  wage  a  triumphant  warfare  at  the  front,  if  we  arc 
weakened  and  menaced  by  scores  of  untaken  forts  in  our 
rear.  Not  only  does  our  non-conclusive  warfare  with  evil 
at  home  set  a  bad  example  to  non-Christian  lands;  it  also 
lessens  our  vitality  and  power  to  help  others.  We  cannot 
win  the  victory  over  heathenism  with  a  faith  that  is  too 
weak  to  conquer  whole  zones  of  life  where  it  has  had 
generations  of  unchecked  opportunity.  I  take  off  my  hat 
in  gratitude  for  every  capable  advocate  of  spreading  the 
gospel  to  the  world's  end.  We  need  more  of  them.  But 
my  heart  hungers  that  more  of  these  same  leaders  shall 
have  an  idealism  which  shall  understand  and  be  mastered 
by  the  immense  victories  that  are  to  be  won  and  must  be 
won  at  home.  If  we  do  not  win  these  victories  or  even 
realize  that  need  for  winning  them  exists,  there  is  no  chance 
that  our  bravest  programs  for  other  nations  shall  come  to 
the  successful  fruition  our  Lord  intended.  Dr.  Robert  E. 
Speer,  a  noted  Foreign  Mission  leader,  declares  on  this 
point:  "It  will  be  vain  to  send  our  little  bands  over  the 
world  to  preach  the  gospel  of  purity  and  peace,  love  and 
power,  if  in  our  social,  industrial  and  racial  conditions  in 
America  we  are  preaching  uncleanness,  strife,  enmity  and 
failure."  John  R.  Mott,  looking  to  the  bearing  of  this 
principle  on  our  mission   impact   at  the   front,   exclaims: 


CRUCIALITY  OF  A  SAVED  SOUTH  219 

"The  ultimate  triiunph  of  pure  Christianity  in  non-Christian 
lands  depends  absolutely  upon  Christianizing  this  impact. 
Only  a  Christianity  powerful  enough  to  dominate  our  social, 
national  and  international  life  and  relationships  will  finally 
commend  itself  to  the  peoples  to  whom  we  go." 

Planters  and  waterers.  Paul  may  plant  and  Apollos  may 
water,  but  God  gives  the  increase.  The  divine  plan  in 
missions  is  that  there  shall  be  both  planting  and  watering. 
Unexcelled  in  planting.  Southern  Baptists  have  been  back- 
ward in  watering  and  cultivating  their  spiritual  plants. 
Their  dominant  point  of  view  in  missions  has  been  that  of 
the  pioneer.  If  the  seed  was  only  sown  faithfully,  they 
have  not  had  a  tender  conscience  about  nurturing  the  life 
of  the  plants.  This  has  affected  their  attitude  toward  mis- 
sions at  home  and  abroad.  It  has  tended  to  minimize  the 
task  in  America,  while  it  seemed  to  magnify  that  abroad. 
Stirred  into  a  more  or  less  artificial  zeal  by  the  presentation 
of  the  overwhelming  extensive  reach  of  the  task  in  regions 
beyond,  our  passion  has  usually  lacked  the  ballast  of  an 
understanding  that  not  only  must  the  world  be  reached, 
but  it  must  be  taught,  as  we  go,  so  that  it,  also,  may  join 
the  goers.  This  concept  makes  the  Foreign  Mission  pro- 
gram at  once  larger  and  less  staggering,  for  the  Kingdom 
is  like  leaven,  and  leaven  works.  At  the  same  time,  our 
pioneer  attitude  has  unjustly  minimized  the  compelling 
appeal  of  missions  in  the  homeland  and  in  doing  so  has 
crippled  Foreign  Missions,  through  resultant  weakness  in 
the  base  of  supplies,  and  through  our  failure  to  create  a 
Christian  example  and  impact  in  America  to  back  up  the 
efforts  of  our  faithful  missionaries  on  other  shores.  May 
God  graciously  open  the  heart  of  each  one  who  may  have 
patiently  perused  these  pages  to  that  fuller  concept  of  the 


220        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

missionary  program.  May  each  of  us  take  to  heart,  with- 
out belittling  or  ignoring  any  of  it,  the  whole  program  of 
Christ.  He  was  the  founder  of  a  world  religion,  but  spent 
his  whole  life  teaching  and  healing  in  little  Palestine.  He 
would  have  us  practice  the  missionary  spirit  with  our  whole 
hearts,  in  our  home,  our  community,  our  State,  our  section, 
our  nation  and  the  whole  world.  When  we  shall  give  our- 
selves to  the  full  program  of  Christ,  without  ignoring  or 
despising  any  of  it.  we  shall  reap  the  ripe  and  complete 
results  of  full  obedience  to  our  Lord.  May  God  graciously 
open  the  heart  of  everyone  of  us  to  this  committal! 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY  IN  CHAPTER  X. 

1.  To  what  degree  is  America  a  Christian  country? 

2.  Give    Providential    indications    of    God's    purpose    that    the 
South  shall  do  much  to  save  America  and  the  world? 

3.  Give  instances  which  indicate  that  our  impact  on  other  lands 
does  not  confirm  the  message  of  our  missionaries. 

4.  Show  that  only  Christianity  can  civilize. 

5.  Give    evidence     that    we    must     Christianize   the    South,    or 
greatly  cripple  our  missionary  value  to  the  world. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

It  has  seemed  that  it  may  be  of  more  use  to  the  reader  to 
give  here  the  list  of  books  which  have  been  most  helpful  to 
me  in  preparing  this  work,  rather  than  undertake  to  present 
a  complete  bibliography.  Practically  everyone  of  the  books 
named  is  of  distinct  merit  in  its  field.  References  to  chapters 
in  "The  Home  Mission  Task"  are  given  because  of  the  un- 
usual value  of  those  chapters.  The  book  is  temporarily  out 
of  print,  but  several  thousand  copies  of  it  are  in  the  hands  of 
our  Baptist  people.  Any  of  the  books  named  may  be  had  by 
ordering  from  the  Publicity  Department  of  the  Home  Mission 
Board,  Atlanta,  Georgia.  Except  "Our  Southern  Highlanders," 
by  Kephart,  which  costs  $2.50  and  is  worth  it,  the  books  named 
cost  from  fifty  cents  up,  none  of  them  above  $1.25  the  copy. 

ON  GENERAL  HOME  MISSIONS. 

The  Mission  of  Our  Nation James  F.  Love 

The  Task  That  Challenges S.  L.  Morris 

Missions  Striking  Home Joseph  E.  McAfee 

World  Missions  from  the  Home  Base Joseph  E.  McAfee 

Housekeeping  for  Our  Neighbor  (Chap,  in  Home  Mission 

Task)    Wm.  E.  Hatcher 

Horizon  of  American  Missions I.  N.  McCash 

Baptist  Missions  in  the  South Victor  I.  Masters 

ON  THE  NEGRO. 

Negro  Life  in  the  South W.  D.  Weatherford 

Present  Forces  in  Negro  Life W.  D.  Weatherford 

Life  and  Times  of  Booker  Washington B.  F.  Riley 

Up  from  Slavery •. Booker  Washington 

In  Black  and  White Mrs.  L.  H.  Hammond 

Race  Question  in  the  South  (Chap,  in  H.  M.  Task) 

J.  B.  Gambrell 

The  Souls  of  Black  Folk W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois 

Negro  Year  Book Monroe  N.  Works 


222        THE  CALL  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ON  THE  MOUNTAINEER. 

Our  Southern  Highlanders Horace  Kephart 

The  Southern  Highlands  (Chap,  in  H.  M.  Task) 

John  E.  White 

ON  A  GOSPEL  FOR  A  PROSPEROUS  AGE. 

Money  Mad Courtland  Myers 

The  Money  God John  C.  Van  Dyke 

Southern  Wealth  and  Its  Consecration  (Chap,  in  H.  M. 

Task)    Richard  H.  Edmonds 

Religion  and  Money  (a  tract) Edwin  M.  Poteat 

ON  FALSE  FAITHS,  RATIONALISM  AND   LIBERALISM. 

The  Other  Side  of  Evolution Alexander  Patterson 

Paul  and  the  Revolt  Against  Him W.  C.  Wilkinson 

The  Signs  of  the  Times I.  M.  Haldeman 

The  Religio-Medical  Masquerade Fred  W.  Peabody 

Christian  Science I.  M.  Haldeman 

American  Ideals C.  S.  Cooper 

The  Church  and  the  Kingdom Jesse  B.  Thomas 

The  Baptist  Debt  to  the  World J.  W.  Porter 

Mormonism,  the  Islam  of  America Bruce  Kinney 

Christ  in  the  Social  Order W.  M.  Clow 

ON  IMMIGRATION. 
Immigrant  Forces Wm.  P.  Shriver 

ON  SAVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

Country  Church  in  the  South Victor  I.  Masters 

The  Church  and  Rural  Life Paul  Vogt 

Rural    Christendom Charles  Roads 

The  Country  Town Wilbert  L.  Anderson 

Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Problem K.  L  Butterfield 


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